Sri Yoga Vashistam

Book of Vairagya (Book of Dejection) :

Sarga 1 :

Prelude 1:

Auspicious Introduction. 1) Salutations to the Supreme True Self from whom all the beings emerge, who sustains all these beings and in whom they merge.

2) Salutaions to that Self of Knowledge, who is the Knower, that which is to be known and that which is knowledge ; that which is phenomenon, the observer and the observation; that which is the action, the actor and the cause.

3)Salutations to that Self of Beatitude and Bliss, who showers down dribbles of Bliss from the sky waters of Bliss and who gives life toall beings.

The Story

4) A Brahmin called Suthishna was beset with doubts. He went to the hermitage of Agastya and asked of him thus.

Sutishna:

5)O Bhagavan, the Knower of all Dharma, the great arbiter of all scriptures, I am having a great doubt. Please relieve me of that with compassion.

6) Is it action or knowledge that can lead one to liberation? Or, are both capable of leading to liberation? Tell me clearly.

Agasti:

7) Birds fly in the sky with the help of their two wings.In the same way, a person attains the Supreme state with the help of both Jnana and action.

8) Liberation cannot be achieved with either Jnana or action alone and so wise men consider that both together are the instruments for liberation.

9) To clarify this point I shall narrate to you an ancient story. There was once in some town a brahmin called Karunya.He was learned in all the scriptures.

10) He was the son of Agnivesya. He learnt the Vedas and associated scriptures from a Guru.After finishing his education, he returned tohis house.

11) He, however, developed a sense of doubt in what is said in scriptures about rights and rituals.And so, he abandoned allrituals.His father, Agnivesya noticed his son's reticence about rituals.

12) He then spoke thus to his son: "My son,why are you not performing the rituals prescribed?

13) Tell me how you can accomplish anything without being engaged in the ritual activity. Tell me why you have given up the right rituals.

Karunya:

14)Keeping the fires, performing "Sandhya" and such rituals lead one to the field of worldly action. All the such rituals laid down by the scriptures are merely forms of worldly action and impulses to suchaction.

15) Liberation cannot come out of money or bearing children.Only by renunciation, Immortality is obtained.

16) O my father and teacher, I was not able to decide between the two paths.And so, I became reticent about ritual action.

Agasti:

17) After saying thus, child Karunya became silent. The father then asked his son thus.

Agnivesya:

18) Listen my son.I shall tell you a story for this purpose(in answer

to your doubt). Think about it carefully, then do what you want to.

19) Once, an apsara, called Suruchi was sitting on a peak of himalayas, surrounded by peacocks.

20) Nearby,were the kinnera and kinneri couples engaged in voluptuous sports. The great Ganga, which can wash the sins off people was flowing nearby.

21)She saw then the messenger of Indra flying across the sky.She accosted him and said thus.

Suruchi:

22) O Blessed messenger of Indra! Where from are you coming and to what destination are you proceeding? Please tell me.

Messenger of Indra:

23) O Lady of beautiful brow,you have asked me in a gentle way.I shall tell you about my errand.Rajarshi Aristanemi abdicated his kingdom in favour of his son.

24)Shedding all attachement, this noble king decided to engage himself in penance in a forest.He is now absorbed in deep penance on the "Gandhamaadana" mountain.

25) I have finished my work there (as ordered by Indra). I am returning to report about the work i did to Indra.

Apsara:

26) O Lord, What is the story there? I am interested in knowing about it. I am asking in all humility.Please do not slight me (by not telling the story).

Messenger of Indra:

27)Listen, O honourable and auspicious lady! I shall tell everything in detail. King Aristanemi is performing intense penance in the mountain forest.

28)Indra, the King of Gods, ordered me to go to the place where Aristanemi is performing his penance, taking the heavenly aeroplanewith me.

29-31) He wanted me to take along with me the apsaras, kinneras, gandharvas, sidhas, yakshas, accompanied by an orchestra of musical instruments.He wanted me to fly Aristanemi to Amaravati by the heavenly aeroplane so that he can enjoy all pleasures of heaven

32) Ordered thus, I proceeded to Gandhamaadana with all the accompaniments, along with the aeroplane (flying machine of Indra).

33)Reaching Gandhamaadana, I conveyed the orders of Indra.

34) King Aristanemi heard me and said, "May I ask you of God's Messenger, this question?

35)Please describe to me, the good and bad about Amaravati.I shall then decide what I should do."

The Messenger:

36-37) People enjoy the happiness of heavens according to the level of merit.The highest heaven is obtained by the most virtuous.For the medium merit, middle heaven is obtained.For the lowest level of merit,the lowest of heavens is obtained.

38) When all the acquired merit declines after enjoyment in the heavens, people feel jealous about those still in heaven.They feel asense of competition with the peers.They look down upon those who are less than them.

39)When the merit is exhausted, they enter Earth as human beings.Heavens the shine with such qualities and blemishes.

King:

40)Hearing this, the King said, "O messenger of the gods, I do not desire such heavens.

41-42)I shall continue my intense penance and shed this polluted body like a snake shedding its skin.O messenger of gods, please take this flying machine and go back to Indra.My salutations to you."

The messenger:

43)When the king said this, I returned and conveyed the entire conversation to Indra. Indra was tremendously surprised.Indra saidagain the following to me in soft tones.

Indra:

44-45)"O messenger, go back to the king again.Take that man of detachment to sage Valmiki, the knower of Truth, for hisenlightenment.Please deliver this message of mine to sage Valmiki.

46)O Sage, please enlighten this king, who is humble, detached and not desirous of heaven.This king,who is bedevilled by the world, will attain liberation in course of time."

47-48)With this message, I was sent back to the king.I went back to the king.Taking him along with me, I went to sage Valmiki's hermitage.I delivered the message of Indra to Valmiki.I also informed him of the king's desire for liberation.

49)Sage Valimiki then enquired of the well being of the king with great love and affection.

The King:

50-51) O Bhagavan, by your grace, I am in a good state of being.I want to ask of you, how I can get released from this bondage of the world.

Sage Valmiki:

52) Listen, O king. I shall narrate to you the great Ramayana.Hear with attention and absorb it with appropriate effort.You shall attain liberation.

53) O man of enquiring nature, the intelligent one, I shall narrate the dialouge between sage Vasista and Sri Rama.It is auspicious and liberating.

The King:

54) O best of knowers of truth, who is this Rama?Is he liberated or bound? Tell me clearly.

Sri Valmiki:

55) O king, he is Hari himself, who donned the role and ropes of a king due to some curses given to him.He is endowed with knowledge, but he shed that and behaved like one without any knowledge.

The King:56) O sage, what is the cause of curses on Rama, who is the very embodiment of Consciousness-bliss and who is consciousness itself? Whocursed him? Please tell me.

Sri Valmiki:57) Once, the desire-free Sanathkumara was in Brahma loka.Then there arrived Sri Vishnu from Vaikuntha.

58) Except Sanathkumara, everyone else in that Satyaloka greeted him and worshipped him.Then Vishnu addressed Sanathkumara and said thus.

59) "O Sanathkumara, you have remained silent (without greeting).You have become arrogant thinking that you have no desires. Be born as Kumaraswami and suffer from the pangs of sex."

60) Then Sanathkumara cursed Vishnu (in return) that he should loose memory of all knowledge and live for a while (on earth).

61) Sage Bhrigu got enraged when he saw that his wife was killed by Sri Vishnu and cursed Vishnu that he should suffer from separation from his wife.

62-64) Brinda cursed Vishnu that he should suffer from separation from his wife.She thought that Vishnu cheated her.The wife of Devadatta saw the fierce form of Lord Narasimha on the banks of river "payoshni" and left her body out of fear. Devadatta, aggrieved of his wife's death , cursed Vishnu that he should also suffer from similar separation.

65-66) Thus, Vishnu was cursed by Santhkumara,Bhrigu, Brinda, and Devadatta and so he took the human form.I told you all about the cursesof Vishnu.Now listen with attention about the ways to liberation.

Sarga II Prelude IISri Valmiki:

1)I bow to the All-self which illumines everything in me, in the Earth,

in the midregion, in heaven and all inside and outside.

2)I am bound (or in bondage).I want to be liberated.Only such a person is elligible to study this Shastra; not a person of deep ignorance and not one who knows the Truth.

3)Whoever inquires into the ways of attaining liberation, initially throught studies and stories( biographies of great people), such a wise man will not be born again.

4-5)I have initially narrated Ramayana, the story of the valorous Rama. Then, i gave it to my intelligent disciple Bharadwaja of great humility and concentration.

6) Then Bharadwaja read this Ramayana to Brahma who was living in the deep forests of Meru.

7) Highly pleased with the narration, Brahma, the ancient one, asked Bharadwaja to ask for a boon.

Bharadwaja:

8) O Bhagawan, the knower of future and past, give me that boon which relieves men of their sorrow.That is the boon i like most.

Sri Brahma:

9-10) Immediately go to Valmiki who has started writing the Ramayana with great effort.Tell him about this. Anyone who hears the story of Ramayana written by Valmiki will cross the ocean of Samsara as ifwalking over a bridge.

Sri Valmiki:

11-12)Saying this, Brahma led by Bharadwaja, came along with him to my hermitage.I worshipped him with all due formalities.Then, he , the one engaged in the good of the world and very powerful, said thus to me.

13)"O best of munis,the story of Rama which you have started writing is a great one.Do not leave it without completion in a flurry due to the strain of writing.

14-15) Reading this great story, many will be rescued from the

calamities of "Samasara".It will be like crossing the ocean with aferry.Write this story for the good of the world.I came here to tell you this."

16-18) He then vanished from my ashram in a trice.His arrival was like a tide that rose for a minute in the sea.Recovering from the shock, I asked Bharadwaja to tell me again what Brahma said.

Bharadwaja:

19) He said that you should write Ramayana for the good of the world, for rescuing them from the ocean of "samsara".

20-22)O bhagavan, tell me how Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, Shatrughna, Sita, and the sons of ministers got into the catastrophies of "Samsara".How were they relieved of the sorrow?Please tell me. Hearingthat, I and others will be similarly free.

23-24) O King, hearing this pleading of Bharadwaja, i started telling him.Hear my child Bharadwaja, I am telling you about that which you wanted.Hearing this, you will be rid of attachment.

25-27) O wise one, act like Rama, the detached, the lotus-eyed one and be happy.Act like the noble Bharata, Shatrughna, Lakshmana, Dasaratha, Kousalya, and Sumitra and be happy.Act like Krutascha , Virodha, and Vasista and Vamadeva and the eight ministers who attained the highest knowledge.

28-29) Drishta, Jayantha, Bhasa, Satya, Vijaya, Vibhishana, Sushena, Hanuman are their eight ministers.Indrajit is the minister of Vibhishana.These ministers are of detached minds, liberated in life,and are great souls. They act as things occur to them(Yadha Prapta Karyam).

30) They perform Yajnas, havans, donations, accept what is proper and constantly think of God.By such actions, my child, they are relieved of calamities and distresses.You also do like that and be free from trouble.

31) The one who is completely drowned by this sureless sea of "Samsara" will be relieved of Sorrow and misery when he obtains the highest knowledge.He shall abide forever, satisfied, contented, and without agitation.

Sarga III

Pilgrimage of Sri RamaBharadwaja:1) O knower of Brahman, please tell me how one can attain the state of liberation in life in the way of Rama.I shall achieve the same and be happy.

Sri Valmiki:

2)O gentle one, in my opinion and experience, to prevent the awakening of any memory of the illusion (of the world)- which is like the colour of the sky- is the best thing.

3)Without experiencing the total absence of phenomenon, none at any time whatsoever, can acquire Self-knowledge.

4)If someone develops a desire for such Self-knowledge, it will happen by listening to (this) "Shastra" and none else.

5) O sinless one, this world is an illusion like the colour of the sky.Though seen, it does not exist. Such an experience can be obtained easily by inquiry through "Shastras".

6) "There is nothing like a phenomenon"- with such awareness and knowledge if the sense of phenomenon is wiped out of mind,then theSupreme "Nirvana" is attained.

7) Otherwise, even if one slips into the depths of the trenches of "Shastra", one cannot attain liberation.For aeons, he will remainignorant with incorrect and artificial knowledge.

8) O brahmin, the shedding of all "vasanas" alone, is the best way to liberation in a clear and progressive manner.

9) When the "Vasanas" decline, then mind quickly dissapears just like the dew drops which disappear with the disappearance of winter.

10) Like the pearls which are held together by a string, the "vasanas" hold the cage of the human body together.

11) "vasanas" are of two kinds : the pure and the polluted. The

polluted ones cause rebirths. The pure ones wipe out the births.

12-13) Wise men say, that bad "vasanas" promote ego and ignorance and cause rebirth. The good "vasanas" do not have any seeds of rebirth.Whatever seeds remain are like burnt seeds which cannot hold abody together.So, the good "vasanas" enable inquiry into the Self.

14)Unable to cause rebirth, the good "Vasanas" remain revolving in the body of a "Jivanmukta".

15)The abundantly good "Vasanas" do not cause rebirth.Having lost the differentiating sense of Knowledge and Knower,such people (with good "vasanas") are called by wise men as "Jivanmuktas".

16)Listen how Rama, of great mind, attained the state of "Jivanmukti".This will mean conquering of old age and death.

17)Listen, my Bharadwaja, of great understanding.I shall narrate the auspicious story of Rama.With that you will know everything.

18) The lotus-eyed Rama finished his studies and left the house of the teacher.Then, for a while, he spent some days relaxing without any concerns.

19)In the reign of Dasaratha, people were leading their lives without fear, sorrow, and any agitations.

20-21) After some time, Rama got excited with the idea of pilgrimage to sacred riverside towns and hermitages.With this thought, Rama approached his father.Like a swan which is drawn to lotuses, he fell atthe feet of his father.

Sri Rama:

22-23)"Dear father, my mind is anxious to visit temples, forest abodes of sages and sacred places.Please permit this request of mine.I have never asked of you anything.You have not refused any request of anyonein the world."

24)When thus prayed, Dasaratha, conferred with sage Vasista, and agreed to this first request of Rama.

25-27) On one auspicious day, under an auspicious star, Rama and his brothers were dressed in princely robes.They were blessed by brahmins.Their mothers bade them farewell affectionately.The brothersstarted then on their journey accompanied by wise men of erudition with deep knowledge of scriptures.They were selected by sage Vasista.

28-30) As they came out of the palace, trumpets were blown.Women of the city looked at them with great admiration.They threw on them, auspicious rice seeds.Then Rama looked like the Himalaya covered bysnow.Giving away freely donations to brahmins and listening to the blessings of the people on the way, Rama and his entourage proceeded towards the forests.

31-42)Starting from his own country, Kosala, Rama moved along, visiting sacred rivers, forests, hermitages and seashores.while on journey, he was performing the regular rites appropriate of a prince.He visited Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswathi, Satadru, Veni, Krishnaveni, Charanmati,Vitasta, Bahudha, and Vipasa.He visited Prayaga, Varanasi, Gaya, Kedara, and Srisailam.He visited Naimisham, and such great forests.He visited Agnithirtha, Mahathirtha, and many lakes like Indradyumna.He paidhomage at the 64 sacred temples like Kartikeya, Saligrama, and harihara.He paid respects to many Rajarshis and Brahmarshis.Rama went around these great places and people several times. The great Rama- worshipped by gods, kinneras and such people - returned to Ayodhya along with his brothersand others, like Ishwara returning to Kailas.

Sarga IV

The Daily Routine of Sri Rama

Sri Valmiki:

1) As the citizens offered flowers and bouquets Rama entered the palace like Jayantha entering heaven.

2)He bowed to his elders, sage Vasista, his father Dasaratha, his elder cousins, brahmins, and elders of the dynasty.

3) When parents and brahmins embraced him with fondness, he felt very

pleased.

4) Hearing his sweet voice, people in the palace of Dasaratha moved about with excitement.

5) An eight day festival was arranged to celebrate his return.The palace was then filled with the sounds of excited participants.

6)Rama stayed thus in the palace describing to the people, the cultures of the various regions and people.

7)He used to perform the morning rituals as ordained in the scriptures and visit his father in the assembly hall.

8-11)He used to hold philosophical discussions with sage Vasista and others in the first quarter of the day.Later in the day, he used to repair to the forest accompanied by his army, to hunt wild bulls andwild boars.Returning from the forest,he used to bathe, have his dinner and spend time with friends and relatives(before retiring in thenight).Thus, Rama was spending his time performing the daily routines after returning from his pilgrimages.

12)O sinless one, thus Raghava was spending his days making the people happy with his enchanting behaviour with people and kings.It was like showering moonlight on people.

Sarga V

Making Known the Thinning Down (of Rama)

Sri Valmiki:

1) Rama was of sixteen years age at that time.His brothers Lakshmana and Satrughna were following him (in his activities).

2) Bharata was all the time staying happily with his maternal grandfather. Dasaratha was ruling over the kingdom as usual.

3)The wise and noble Dasaratha was conferring with his ministers and knowledgable advisors about the marriage of his sons.

4-5)(On the other hand) Rama was getting emaciated day by day like a

lake in autumn.The wide-eyed Rama's face turned pale, resembling awhite lotus infested by bees.

6) sitting in lotus pose and with his hand on his cheek, and in a mood of taciturnity, he used to remain silent, engrossed in some enquiry.

7)Emaciated due to sorrow and thinking, he was not talking to anybody.He sat like a still figure.

8) His lotus-like face was withered and languid.He was not performing even his daily routines even after repeated persuasions and pleadingsby his servants.

9-10)Looking at the condition of Rama, of noble qualities, his brothers also sank into a similar mood.Seeing his children in such a grievous mood, and languishing day by day, Dasaratha and his wives started worrying about them.

11-12) "What is your problem son"- Dasaratha asked Rama several times.Even so, Rama did not reply.He used to say,"Dear father, I haveno worries" and fall silent immediately.

13) Then Dasaratha enquired of sage Vasista, the knower of all actions and an orator, "What is the problem with Rama?".

14-15) Vasista said,"Do not grieve o king.There is a reason for this.Great people will never feel agitated, upset, or feel elated dueto ordinary reasons. Will the great elements be agitated without promptingby the speed of creation or dissolution?".

Sarga VI The Arrival of Viswamitra

Sri Valmiki:

1) When the great sage said thus, Dasaratha, struck by sorrow and doubt, kept silent for a moment.

2)The queens in the palace were in a mood of distress.They were

observing the activities of Rama closely.

3)At such a time, the famous sage Viswamitra arrived to see king Dasaratha.

4-5) The "yajna" being performed by the sage for the protection of Dharma was being disturbed by people who were adept in the arts of "Maya".Because of these disturbances, the sage was not able to finishhis sacrifice.He therefore, wanted to see Dasaratha and seek his help in protecting the sacrifice.

6-7) The great "Tapasvi" wanted to destroy those interlopers.And so, the sage of great power arrived in Ayodhya.He arrived at the palacegate and told the commander of the palace gate :"I Viswamitra, son of king Gadhi, have arrived at the gate. I want to see the king immediately.Please go and tell your king."

8-9) Hearing these words, the gatekeepers hurriedly repaired to inside of the palace and informed the king's attendant about the arrival of Viswamitra.Then, Yastika the chief of the retinue of the king quickly went to Dasaratha who was in a conference with his feudatories.

10-13)"My lord, there arrived at the gate the great Viswamitra with golden mane and shining like the morning sun.Our elephants and horsesand weapons are glowing red, reflecting his golden brilliance."

14-15) Hearing this,King Dasaratha walked towards the palace gate, accompanied by ministers, sages Vasista and Vamadeva, and other retinue.

16-17) There he saw sage Viswamitra who is the embodiment of the power of wisdom and valour.It looked as if the sun had descended to the earth for some reason.

18-20) His body was emaciated due to severe austerities.His shoulders were covered by long matter hairs.He looked like a mountain covered by evening clouds.His body was quietly resplendant and pleasing to see. It looked invincible, like an embodiment of energy. The emenating light was delicate and terrifying, pleasing and agitating, majestic and immense.

21-23)In his hands was the "kamandalu", his life-accompaniment.His mind was pure, compassionate and pleasant, he spoke in sweet tones and

drenched people with the nectar of his looks.Adorned with the sacredthread, and with wide and white eyebrows, he induced endless wonder in the minds of spectators.

24-26)Seeing this sage, Dasaratha bowed to him even from a distance. Viswamitra returned the bow with sweet words like the sun bowing the Indra.Then Vasista and others also appropriately welcomed the greatsage.

Dasaratha:

27-29)"O great sage,we are blessed by your visit like the lotuses by the sun.Seeing you, we experience infinite happiness.We feel fully accomplished in dharma with your visit here."

30)Saying thus, the sages and the king entered the assembly hall and took their appropriate seats.

31-33)Dasaratha worshipped Viswamitra, the most resplendant sage with smiles but with fear of any shortcomings in propriety.Viswamitra recieved the worship gracefully and praised Dasaratha.He enquired ofhim about the welfare of the state and himself.He greeted sage Vasista with great reverance and enquired about his disciples and the birds and other animals in his hermitage.

35-38)Those gathered there, enquired of each other and felt very happy.Their power increased as a consequence.Dasaratha gave manypresents, clothes, cows and money, to the seated sage Viswamitra.Then Dasaratha asked of Viswamitra with humility and folded hands thus in sweet tones.

39-43)"O sage, your visit is like the gain of nectar; It is like arrival of rain after drought.It is like gaining sight by a blindman.It is like obtaining a son through a loved wife. Your arrival is like obtaining a thing seen in dreams. It is like meeting the loved ones;like finding something that was lost.Your arrival gives such a happinesslike the return of one who has departed to the skies.Welcome to you o great sage.Whoever does not like residence in "Brahmaloka"! Your visit iscausing such a happiness.I am telling the truth".

44-45)"What need brings you here?What can I do?You are the most righteous person deserving to recieve any gift.You were a king-sage earlier.Scattering around illumination and glow of severeaskesis.Having attained the state of "Brahmarshi" you are highly worship-worthy to us."

46-47)"Seeing you my heart is gladdened and cooled.Its like a bath in the waters of the Ganga. You have no fear, no anger, no desires, no bodily disabilities.Yet you have come to us.It is a wonder."

48-51)"O best of scholars in scriptures and Vedas, with your visit, my house and soul have been sanctified.I am excited as if I am in the world of moon.I deem your visit as that of Brahma.My life isfulfilled.I have been graced.I am not able to contain myself with the happiness caused by worshipping you."

52-54)"O sage, please treat as if the cause of your visit is done.You are our revered guest.O bhagavan, o Kausika, do not hesitate toask.What is it that cannot be given to you? Do not be worried about the appropriateness of that deed that you want.It is my duty to fulfillyour need.You are verily a god."

55) The sage was immensely pleased, hearing these pleasant and apt words of king Dasaratha.

Sarga VII

The Request of Viswamitra

Sri Valmiki:

1) Hearing the marvelous words of Dasaratha, the king of kings, the supremely pleased Viswamitra, of luminous resplendence and power, spoke thus.

2) "It is possible only for one like you, o best of kings, of noble lineage, and who acts under the guidance of the great sage Vasista, to speak such wise and noble words.

3) O best of kings, listen to what i have in my mind and decide on the course of action consistent with the protection and upholding of

"Dharma".

4) For preserving Dharma I am performing Yajna.No sooner than I start that, the rakshasas are invading my place to disturb that effort.

5-7) As and when I perform these sacrifices for the gods, the rakshasas come and disturb them.Many times, I started the Yajna.Immediately, the rakshasas come and cover the sacrificial ground with blood and flesh.Thus disturbed in my attempts, I felt disgusted and discouragedand so I came here.

8) My mind is not inclined to become angry.Cursing is not possible without getting angry.

9) Such is the rigorous ritual restraint on me.With your grace, I can perform the great sacrifice and obtain the reward.

10) I am in distress and deserve to be protected and relieved.I have come seeking refuge. To discard those in distress is not proper fornoble people.

11-12) Your eldest son Rama is a person of great prowess equal to that of a tiger.He is as great a warrior as Mahendra.He is truly a man of might. The young man, with hair flying about his ears, is a brave manof valour.Give him to me (for this purpose).

13-14) He will be protected by my hidden divine powers.Rama can then kill the Rakshasas.I shall endow him with innumerable protective and powerful weapons.Because of them, he shall be worshipped in the futureby the three worlds.

15) Just as the deer and antelopes cannot stand before an angry lion, those Rakshasas cannot dare stand before Rama.

16) Others, except Rama, will not be enthused to engage in battle with rakshasas.Only a wild elephant can dare a lion.

17-18) The soldiers of Khara and Dushana who are arrogant with might, who are like poisonous snakes, who are with great sin, cannot tolerate and face the shower of arrows of Rama.

19) It is not proper ,o king, to have too much attachment to a son.There is nothing that cannot be given as gift to great souls.

20) I know truly that the rakshasas are as if already killed.You also know as such. People like us, who know truth will never entertain ambiguous and doubtful things.

21) I know about the noble lotus-eyed Rama. Sage Vasista and other knowers of the future also know about him.

22) If you are interested in Dharma, greatness and fame, give what i asked for, the great of yours to me.

23)My Yajna will take ten days to be performed.During this period, the enemies i.e, the rakshasas, who are disturbing the Yajna will be killed by Rama.

24) Give , O Kakutsa,the permission to your ministers and sage Vasista to send Rama with me.

25-27) Send Rama with me, O knower about time.Do not waste anymore of my time. May you be prosperous.Do not be agitated in your mind.A help rendered in time will be a favour. If done when not needed, even agreat help or assistance will be useless.It will not be a favour.Saying thus, Viswamitra of great brilliance kept quiet.

28) Listening to the words of the great sage, the king was silent for a while before giving him a proper reply.People who are intelligent and discriminating will not be happy to hear inappropriate words when their wish may not be fulfilled.

Sarga VIII

Reply of Dasaratha

Sri Valmiki:

1) Hearing the words of sage Viswamitra, the best of kings was stunned.Recovering after a moment, he spoke thus with a distressedvoice.

2) "O sage, Rama is only sixteen.I do not think he has the capability to face the rakshasas in battle.

3-5) I am the commander in chief of this great army of millions.I shall lead this army and battle with the rakshasas.All these are mighty warriors.They are adepts in strategy and "mantras".I shall hold my bow,and lead from the front and protect all of them. I can face even warriors with Mahenra's might. Like a lion fighting a wild elephant.

6-7) Rama is a child.He does not know the strengths and weaknesses of armies.He has seem only the arranged battles inside the palace.He has never seen a real battlefield.He is not an adept with weapons and arrows.He is not an adept in the art of warfare.He does not know how toface the hordes of mighty warriors in a battlefield.

8-9) He is familiar only with the palace and city gardens.He knows only how to roam around with his friends on flower-laden garden paths.

10-11) O Bhagawan, it is my fate - Rama is now getting emaciated day by day.He is looking pale like a white lotus.He is not relishing food.He sits silent without even moving around the palace.He seems distressed inside (his mind).

12) O lord of munis, I, my wives and the servants are grieving for him and leading a sapless life.

13)How can I give such a child who is mentally distressed to fight battles with rakshasas?

14-15)Love for a child gives greater happiness than union with a young woman, than gaining a kingdom and even more than the sweetness of nectar.Out of affection for their children, many are committing evengreat sins without hesistation in the three worlds.

16) People can give up spouses, wealth and many happinesses, but not children.This is the nature of even animals.

17) The rakshasas are cruel people.They are adepts in decietful warfare.I cannot bear Rama engaging himself in battle with such people.

18) I cannot be away from the gentle Rama even for a moment.I cannot live without him.If you desire that I should be alive, please do nottake Rama away from me.

19-20) O Kausika, my four children are the fruits of my sorrowful life of nine thousand years.Among them, Rama is the most important.Without him, the other three also cannot survive.

21)If you take such Rama to battle with rakshasas, please understand that I will be dead without any offspring.

22) Of the four, Rama is dearest to me.Do not take away the eldest and the most righteous Rama.

23) If vanquishing the rakshasas is your intent , O sage, please take me along with my huge armies.

24)Please tell me clearly of their strength, their lineage and their numbers.

25) O Bhagawan, please tell how we should face the deciet and intrigue of the rakshasas in battle (wether it is I or my children).

26) Tell us O bhagawan, how we should behave while battling the evil and wicked, mughty rakshasas.

27-28) I heard of a mighty Ravana, the brother of Kubera and son of Visravasu.If he is the one who is disturbing your yajna out of evil intentions, we have no power to go to war with him.

29) At times, great superhuman prowess and power manifests in some people.With time, it vanishes.

30) As of now, we are not capable of facing Ravana.This is due to the law of creation (The Niyati).

31) And so, O knower of Dharma, please favour me with my children.I am one struck by fate.You are our great protector.

32) None among the gods, danavas, gandharvas, yakshas, birds and snakes can battle Ravana.What to talk of us!

33) Great warriors of known valour could not succeed in vanquishing the rakshasas in battle.When I cannot join battle with him, how can the boys do?

34)Time reduces even good men into fragile, powerless creatures.I am powerless, even though born in the Raghu dynasty due to old age.

35-36)I will not release my son even if you saw that "Lavana" the son of Madhu is disturbing your Yajna.Even if it is said that Sunda and Upasunda, of might equal to Yama, are the destroyers of your sacrifice,I will not give my son (to you).

37) O Brahmin, now, if he is taken without my consent by force, I have no alternative, but to claim eternal victory (by leaving the world).

38) Having said thus, the noble-souled Dasaratha sank into a state of agitation, not knowing the reaction of muni Viswamitra to his words.His mind was like a wave oscillating in a rough sea.

Sarga IX

Consoling by Vasista

Sri Valmiki:

1) Hearing the words of Dasaratha,with affection-bewildered looks, Viswamitra, the Kausika, reacted in curt speech.

2) "Vowing to fulfill my request, you have broken the word.It is like a lion wanting to be a dear.

3) Such an action does not behove one born in Raghu dynasty. Never will hot beams come out of cool moon.

4) If you are incapable (of acceding to my requests) I shall go back the way I came. O Kaputsa, you are a vow-breaker. Be happy with your people."

Sri Valmiki:

5) When Viswamitra was angry, the whole world shook. The denizens of heaven were shaken with fear.

6) Realising that Viswamitra was angry, sage Vasista, the courageous man of sacred vows and intelligence - spoke thus to (Dasaratha).

7-9) Born in the Ikshvaku dynasty, you are the living embodiment of Dharma. You are the jewel of all the noble people in the three worlds. Courageous, you are the best of vow keepers. By your dharma, you are famous in all the three worlds. You should not cause any harm to

Dharma.Practise your own Dharma. Do not abandon it.Keep the word givento the lord of the munis.

10-12) Having promised to do his bidding, by not keeping the word, you will be violating "ishta and purti"*** Dharmas. Release Rama (for his work). If Dasaratha, born in the Ikshvaku dynasty, does not follow Dharma whoever will? People do give up tradition looking at thebehaviour of people like you. You should not give up your Dharmic behaviour).

***Ishta Dharma : Keeping and tending fires, etc. Purta is doing welfare activities.

13-14) Like nectar which is protected by the god of fire, when someone is protected by this great lion of a person (Viswamitra) wether that person is worst in warfare or not, he cannot be eyed even by rakshasas.This sage is the very incarnation and embodiment of Dharma.Heis the mightiest of the mighty.He excels in "Buddhi". He is jealously engagedin Tapas (askesis).

15-16) The number of miracle or mantra-activated weapons and arrows that he knows, no one in the three world knows.None will even know.Evena combination of devas, nagas, kinneras, sages, suras, and rakshasas can equal Viswamitra.

17-18) When he was a king, Krisasva gave him most invincible weapons. These weapons are the sons of Krisasva. They are like the sons of Prajapati. They are the close followers of the brilliantly radiantViswamitra of great prowess.

19) Jaya and Suprabha are the daughters of Daksha Prajapati (these are two are Krisasva's wives). They gave birth to hundred invincible warriors.

20-21) Jaya gave birth to fifty sons to vanquish the suras. They are capable of moving about as they desire (Vamacharis).They can achieve anything they want. Suprabha gave birth to fifty sons. They are very strong. They look very fierce. They are called "Sangharsas" (Those whoare inclined to fights).

22) Viswamitra (with the miracle weapons given to him) is such a warrior of immense power and so, do not be agitated about the departureof Rama (with him).

23) O gentle Dasaratha, do not be distressed. With such a powerful person like Viswamitra by their side, even a dead man will come alive.

Sarga X

The Distress of Rama

Sri Valmiki:

1) when Vasista spoke thus, Dasaratha was very pleased and happy. He ordered Rama to be brought there along with Laksmana.

2) "O keeper of the door, please bring Rama here, the mighty warrior, along with Lakshmana.There is an important purpose."

3) Ordered thus,the gate keeper went inside the palace, returned quickly and said:

4-5) "My lord, Rama is sitting in his room quietly in a pensieve mood, like a bee sitting inside a lotus. He said : Go, I am coming in a minute.He does not like anyone to be near him.He again sank into his silence."

6-7)When he spoke thus, Dasaratha cheered up the servant of Rama(who came along) and asked him,"How is Rama?".Then the servant of Ramareplied in a grieving voice.

8-10) "My lord,Rama is emaciated.Along with him, we are also declining in body and are living in distress (looking at our dear prince). Rama is in the state of dejection since his return from pilgrimages along with the wise brahmins.However much we plead and pray, he is not enthusiastic about even the routine actions and rituals.He may or mayunot perform them. He looks weary and fatigued.

11-13) He is not interested in bathing or eating.He does not spend time with the palace maidens attending on him.O King, like one, who is

falling from heaven after due pleasant stay there, does not feel any interest in heaven, Rama does not evince any interest in jewels and decorations.

14-16) Rama becomes dejected even with the looks of beautiful, playful women, with fragrant breezes and with flowery arbours.He feels dejected with delectable gourmet which hold the mind and tongue of a person. His eyes become tearfilled with their sight.When he sees beautiful dancing damsels, he shouts at them, saying,"Who are these ladies who cause sorrow?".

17) Like a mad man,he blames and shows aversion to food, bath, bed, and any pleasurable things.

18) "What are these riches?What are these misfortunes and calamities? What are these desires? What are these palaces?All are illusions". Saying thus, he falls silent.

19-20) He does not indulge in pleasure, nor is he playful.He does not get involved in any activities. He remains always silent and unconcerned.None is able to enthuse or make Rama, of beautiful curlyhair, happy.It is as if a dear cannot enliven a forest.

21-23)As if he is sold to a forest man, Rama wants to live in lonely places like a forest or a river bank.Turning away in aversion from food,clothes and drinks, Rama is like a wandering mendicant interestedin penance.O Lord, he prefers lonely places without any human presence.He does not laught, he does not cry, he does not sing, he sits in total concentration.

24-25) He has no ego.He has no interest in kingship. He is neither elated nor depressed with pleasure or pain.He is sits in lotus-pose,always with his hand under his chin and with his mind empty.

26) We are not aware of what he wants, what he meditates on, what he is searching for, what he thinks, and what for he moves about.

27) He is becoming thinner and thinner day by day.He is becoming paler and paler. He is becoming dejected and disenchanted day by day.His state is like that of a tree in autumn.

28) O King, the condition of his brothers, his followes, Lakshmana and

Shatrughna is also similar.They are like his images.

29-30) When his servants and mothers question him, he says nothing and slips into his silence.He tells his friends by his side, "Do not be attracted to temporary, instand pleasures.They will cause mental agony."

31)He looks at the beautiful maidens in palace as deaths and calamities.

32) He hums again and again to himself : All this life is wasted in efforts which do not lead to that Supreme state.

33) "Become an emperor": If any one of his servants says thus, he says "he is blabbering like a mad fellow" and smiles in silence.

34) He does not notice things around him. He does not encourage conversation.He rejects even good things.

35) "There is a lotus in the sky.There is forest in the sky" - such things do not create any wonder in him.

36) Even when he is in the midst of women, romantic feelings and desires are not arising in him. He is like a stone that cannot bebroken by a water jet.

37-38) "Wealth is the abode of all calamities. Why want it? Saying this,he gives all this wealth to those who ask for it.This is acalamity. This is wealth. All this is mere imagination. It causes attachment" -he sings such couplets.

39) "Oh, I am dead.I am furlorn.People cry like this, yet they do not become detached. What a strange thing", says Rama.

40-41) We are very much distressed that Rama, the Banyan tree in the vast forest of Raghu dynasty, is in this condition. We do not know what to do in this situation.O mighty king, you have to guide us.

42) He shrugs off any council or discussion by wise men, be it a princely person or a brahmin as mere ignorance and smiles.

43) What is visible as this vast world "is not". I am "not" - He has come to such a conclusion.

44-45) O lord, there are no friends or enemies for him; no difficulties and no happinesses; no kingdom, no mother, no body, no wealth.He has no desire, no ambition, no rejection.He is not a fool.He is not liberated. And so,we are all very much disturbed.

46-48)"What have I got to do with wealth, parents, kingdom and desires?", having concluded so, he is even prepared to give up his life.Kingdoms, pleasures, parents and friends have become things ofagitation for him, like drought for a "Chataka" bird. This kind of calamity is spreading like the branches of a tree.Kindly pull him out of this.

49-51) Because of such an attitude, he looks at the world, which is full of prosperity, as poison.Is there anyone capable in this world,who can turn him away from such attitude back into the activity of this world.Is there any great man who can convince him out of this mental delusion successfully (by wisdom and knowledge) the way sun drives away darkness during day.

Sarga XI

Consoling of Rama

Sri Viswamitra:

1) O men of wisdom, if this is the condition and state of Rama, bring him here soon, like a deer-king is brought by deer.

2) Such a state of bewilderment and disillusion has not come to Rama out of any calamity or infatuation or attachment to something.This dejection is the awakening born out of and driven by discriminatory intelligence.

3-5) Let Rama come here. We will blow away his dejection in no time, the way wind blows away the clouds around a mountain.We shall wipe out his state by skilfull logic. Then he shall be reposed, like us in that Supreme state of rest.He shall then gain the truth, the bliss, repose, knowledge, rest,strength and charming colour, as if he drank nectar.

6-7) He shall then perform all activities and duties befitting his nature with full interest and mind. He shall become a great "Sattwic"

person.He shall know the secrets of the world without any sense ofsorrow or joy. He shall look upon stone, gold and blade of grass with a feeling of equality.

8) When Viswamitra, the lord of munis spoke thus, Dasaratha was filled with joy and sent messengers to bring Rama to the assembly.

9-10) Meanwhile, Rama rose from his seat to meet his father. It was like the sun rising from the eastern hills. Accompanied by servants and brothers, Rama arrived at the court resembling the heavenly assembly.

11-13) Rama saw from a distance his father who was surrounded by kings and feudatories, the way Indra is by the gods.He saw sage Viswamitra and sage Vasista seated on either side of Dasaratha, very erudite ministers, well versed in all sciences were adorning theassembly.Beautiful girls were fanning them.They looked like embodiments of quarters.

14) Sage Vasista, Viswamitra, Dasaratha and others saw the kumaraswami-like Rama coming from a distance.

15-16) Rama with conspicuous and dignified presence looked like the mighty, cool, worship-worthy himalaya.He was gentle. He had an attitudeof equality and an auspicious presence and figure. He was humble and generous. He had a frame attractive to women.He was worthy of thepurposes of the Supreme.

17)Youth was blossoming in him.He looked graceful and peaceful like an elderly person. He was blissful and unperturbed.His wishes were like those who are attained.

18) He thought of the passage of the world.He evinced sacred qualities and behaviour.It was as if all qualities had sought refuge in him in order to reach the "Sattwic" charecter.

19) His mind was an abode of generosity and nobility.(Yet) his unagitated behaviour revealed something not perfect.

20) Such Rama of noble and auspicious qualities looked like a pure, whitish smile.

21) He reached his father and bowed to him with bent head which was

adorned with beautiful diamonds.His head then looked like Meru shakenby an earthquake, with brillian light emerging out of the pearls and diamonds on his head.

22-23)Rama then bowed to other sages and other respected people sitting around including the gurus.

24) He then recieved the bows made by the feudatory princes and wealthy people by mere winking of his sight.

25-27) After recieving the blessings of the seated sages, Rama of balanced mind, reached the place next to his virtuous father. Dasaratha recieved him and his brothers affectionately with kisses and embraces.It was like the king-swan kissing a lotus.

28) Rama and the brothers sat on a sheet spread on the ground by the servants, in spite of the suggestion by Dasaratha to sit on his lap.

Dasaratha:

29-31) My child, you are intelligent and of good nature and behaviour.Do not grieve like a fool, loosing yourself. People like youwill attain the highest state only by following the teachings and advices of teachers and "Jnanis", not by persuing bewilderment. So long as you donot get into the grip of bewilderment and a weak mental state, no calamity will come near you.

Sri Vasista:

32-33) O prince mighty, like a warrior, you have conquered the invincible enemies called the senses.Even so,why have you drownedyourself like an ignorant person in the ocean of deep infatuation (and dejection).

Sri Viswamitra:34)O Rama,your eyes are quivering like quivering blue lotuses.Please tell us the reason for your dejection after study yourself.

35) What is causing you worry? Like rats ravaging a house, what disturbs your mind? What are you looking for?

36-37) This is not befitting a person like you. O sinless one, articulate what you want. It shall be given. You shall achieve it.There is no need to worry.

38) When sage Viswamitra spoke thus, Rama listened and felt happy that his desire would be fulfilled. He was like a peacock which is happy hearing the thunder of a cloud.

Sarga XII

Grief of Rama

Sri Valmiki:

1) Consoled by what Sri Viswamitra said, Rama spoke thus in beautiful, meaningful words.

Sri Rama:

2) O Bhagawan, as you wanted, I am telling everything. Who can disobey the words of great people?

3-6) Born in this house of my father, I got educated and have grown up. O sage, having grown up with traditions and practising them, I have toured the entire world, surrounded by oceans. Since that time,tilltoday, my mind has lost interest in this world.This is the reason for my grief.Disinterested in pleasures, I have started enquiring thus within myself with my intelligence.

7)" What happiness is there in this world? We are born to die and die to be born.

8-10) All human and non-human activity is driven by things that are unstable.They lead to calamities. They are the grounds for sins,pleasures and becomings.Resembling iron bars, they do not relate to each other. They are connected only in the imagination of our minds.Bound by mind,this world looks enjoyable.But mind (itself) seems unreal.Whyshould be enamoured (of the world)?

11-13) Foolishly, we are after these non-existing things like the deer which run after the waters of a mirage.Knowing that all this is illusion (and jugglery), foolishly, we live as if bound and sold (tothis illusion) even though not bound and sold.Why are we then bound and enchanted by these fortunes and misfortunes called pleasures?

14-15) I have realised now,after a long time, that we are uselessly in enchantment and infatuation the way the animals are with the chasms in a forest.What am I? What is the pleasure in a kingdom? Why have I come here? Let this be an illusion. What for and why have I come into this?

16) O Brahman,debating thus, I became disinterested in everything the way a traveller dislikes a desert.

17-19) O Bhagawan, tell me, why does this (world or body) get destroyed? Why is it born? Why does it grow?Old age, death,misfortunes, calamities, birth, wealth - they come and go again and again.We arewearing out, verily, like the peaks of a mountain by winds, indulging in pleasures again and again.

20-21) Though the life-giving "Prana" is flowing through them, people are lying unconscious.It is like the wind blowing throught the splitsin a bamboo, making useless sounds.I am burning with these thoughts.How can I be pacified and tranquiled? I am like an aged tree burning due to the fire inside.

22-23) My heart is like the dense stone of world-sorrow.Even so, I do not cry fearing that I will upset my people.My face is pale and wornout due to silent grief.Only my intelligence is able to see and understand my state of loneliness.

24-25) I am very much hurt and am suffering from the constantly rising thoughts and moods and result in mental state.It is like a rich man becoming poor (suddenly). The mental states are bewildering. They are breaking my (natura) qualities.Like one who is drawn in by deceit, theyare provoking sorrows.

26-27) I cannot derive pleasure from grief-filled wealth.It is like a calamity in your house with a wife in the (natal) state.I am not

relieved from the mind which is full of guiltful and blemishful thoughts.Thinking of the causes for the transient states, I am like awild elephant bound (to a pole).

28-29) Many thieves, called senses, will be roaming around in the night of ignorance Powere by dense fog of infatuations and attachments to steal the diamond of "Viveka". Whoever is capable than you to battlewith these warriors.

Sarga XIII

(Rama's) Contempt for wealth

Sri Rama:

1-3) O Sage, people are infatuated by this illusionary worldly wealth. Even so, it is the most useless thing. (This wealth) causes immense joy. Like bellowing and surging fire, it creates distress.It flows likea large,vast river during the rainy season.(This Lakshmi) has many daughters called worries.These daughters are very ugly. They are very unstable like the waves that rise in a river.

4-5) Her feet cannot stay at one place. They flee hither and thither like one whose feet are burnt.This lady of well-proportioned body, generates immense heat (by touch) like a thing which is blackenned bysoot coming out of the flame of a lamp, when Lakshmi touches one, it landsone in destruction.

6-7) Without any judgement about the qualities of a person, she adopts anyone who approaches her.Her nature is foolish like the nature of a king. Lakshmi will increase by bad deeds only, the way a serpent increases by milk.

8) People are gentle and nice like a cool dew drop, so long as Lakshmi does not touch them. They become hard as soon as she touches them. The gentleness flies away the way dew drops are blown off by wind.

9) The way diamonds are blackened by a dirty hand, even men of valour, wise and noble, soft and gentle, will be spoilt by the touch of

Lakshmi.

10) O Bhagavan, Lakshmi does not give happiness.It gives only sorrow. When stashed away, it gives only destruction like poison causing death.

11) It is impossible to find a wealthy man not blamed by people.It is impossible to find a king, who is unbiased.

12) This Lakshmi is like a poisonous snake of miseries in the deep caves (of mountains). It is like the wild elephant of denseinfatuations on the slopes of Vindhyas.

13) This Lakshmi is night for the lotus of good deeds.She is moonlight for the white lotus of miseries. She is breeze for the lamp of good attitudes. She is the surging river of desires and sins.

14) She is the high station and road for the clouds of agitation and perplexity. She is the augmenter of the poison of sorrows.She is the harbinger of error, hesitation and doubt.She is a dreadful female cobra (causing) sorrows.

15) She is dew on the creeper of detachment. She is the night for the owl of sensual, ugly emotions. She is the fangs of Rahu for Viveka.She is like a moon for the lotus of goodness.

16) She is colourful and captivating. She trembles like a lightning. She seeks patronage of stupids and fools.

17) In fickleness, she beats a wild mongoose. She is not of noble lineage.She beats a mirage in deceit.

18-19) Like a wave, she never sticks to a place. She quivers like the flame of a lamp. It is difficult to divine her moments.Like a lioness, she destroys the battle-desiring elephants. She is cool like the edgeof a sword and seeks patronage of fiery and strong people.

20-22) She is acquired and gathered through vices, transgressions and deceit.She is always accompanied by sorrows. What I have found is, that there is only sorrow, not even a little happiness.Driven away, far, she comes back again. She embraces bad people without any shame. Bewitching, she attracts and pulls one's mind and thoughts.Easilyacquired, she is fragile and is apt to break in an instant.She is like a flower-laden

creeper emerging out of a well with snakes crawling all over.

Sarga XIV

(Rama's) Contempt for Life

Sri Rama:

1) Life is very transient. It is like the dew drop on the tip of a tendril.It flees from this body like a man in frenzy.

2) For people who have a decaying mind due to the serpent of sensual things, and to the unintelligent people, life is wearisome.

3) Life is a giver of happiness to those who are composed and reposed, knowing the state of the Supreme Brahman and those who are equally comfortable with becomings and non-becomings, having and not having.

4) We realize, O Muni, that this body-form is limited (in terms of truth). And so, we do not feel any fulfillment in this lightning of the cloud of life.

5) We do not wish to use life to gather around us air, to split the sky into pieces or stitch the waves together (others may do it).

6) Life is like a thin autumn cloud. It is like a lamp without oil. It is unstable like a wave.It is better to think of it as lost (spent).

7) I can accept a reflection of moon in a wave, a mass of lightnings, a lotus in the sky - but not life.

8) Foolish people with a restless mind desire to prolong life.This is like "Aswatari" desiring to remain in the womb.

9) O knower of Brahman, a body suitable for moving about in this changing, transient world, is like foam on the ocean of creation. Ihave no interest in it.I do not relish such a life.

10) That by which one can obtain what is to be obtained, is called life.That by which nothing needs to be lamented is called life. That by which one can attain that Supreme state is called life.

11) Trees are living. Birds are living.But those are not really living. Those who live by proper thinking are really living.

12) In the world, animals are born and they die.Only those of realized souls do not have to come back to life. They are the real gentle lives. The rest are all old buffaloes.

13) For the non-discriminating unintelligent people, scriptural learning is a big burden. For those bewildered and attached , knowledgeis a burden. Disquiet is a burden to the mind. For those who are not awareof Self, the body itself is a burden.

14) The way big loads are a burden to the carriers of those loads, handsome appearance, life, mind, intelligence, ego - all such areburdens causing unhappiness to wicked minds.

15) Restless minds are perfect abodes for calamities. They are nests for diseases. For them, life is really very burdensome.

16) Residing restfully in the cave of body, the diseases give out poisonous heat like vicious serpents which breathe away the air in aforest and dessicate and squeeze out life from the body.

17-18) Like the "ghrina" insect which drills away a tree from inside, diseases devour one's life.

19) Like a cat which feverishly seeks a rat, death eyes constantly a person, with interest, to swallow his life.

20) Old age is like a bedecked prostitute, scented to make people swoon. It however devours life like a man who digests huge amounts offood.

21) Youth abandons even a good man who does not understand life's purposes. Like a bad man who is left by a good man, having beendiscovered (of his bad nature in a short time).

22) God of death, a friend of old age and death always courts the friendship of destruction, the way a paramour likes a beautiful form.

23) Life is always flowing towards death. In terms of stability, happiness, and qualities, life is to be abandoned.There is no other(useless) thing like life.

Sarga XV

(Rama's) Abhorence for egotism and self-conceit

Sri Rama:

1-2) Because of illusion, delusion, and confusion, ignorance arises and develops. I am afraid of the foe of ego which is pure illusion. Ovewhelmed by sense of ego, this treasure house of faults, weaknessesand blemishes (of the human being) shapes this world into many miserableforms.

3) Calamities are due to ego-sense. Bad thoughts and mental states are due to ego. Desires are due to ego. Diseases are due to ego.

4) Under the influence of this greates foe of ego, i have given up food and drink. What to say about pleasures?

5) This world-night is very long. The bewitching mind is decietful.In such a context, the ego is casting its net like a "Kirata".

6) From ego are born long miseries and great catastrophes, the way "Khadina" trees grow out of the mountains.

7) Ego is Rahu for the moon of tranquility. It is snow for the lotus of good qualities. It is autumn to the cloud of equality. I am giving up such ego.

8) I am not Rama. I do not have desires or moods. I have no mind. I desire to abide in myself in peace like a "Jina".

9) Whatever I have eaten, I have offered in sacrifice and have done with a sense I-ness. All of them cease to exist since i am free fromthe sense of ego.

10) O Knower of Brahman, if the sense of ego exists, then i shall

suffer from calamities. Without that, there is only happiness. So it isbest to be devoid of ego.

11) O Muni, giving up ego, I abide in peace and am without any anxiety or agitation and am free from the sins of fragile pleasures.

12) O knower of Brahman, to the extent the ego-clouds search and spread, to that extent, desire-wild jasmine will bloom.

13) When the ego-clouds disperse peacefully, the desire-lightnings will vanish like a dying lamb.

14) The way dark clouds thunder around, the wild elephant of mind roars around among the caves of the great Vindhyas of ego.

15) The world is expanding out from this lion of ego living in the body-forest.

16) The numerous births are sewn together by the strings of desire. The ego-voluptuory wears it around its neck like a pearl necklace.

17) We cannot be free from the likes of sons, friends and wife spread out by the foe of ego even with the help of mantras and tantras.

18) If ego-sense is axed at the very root, then all the mental and physical problems will subside by themselves.

19) If the fog of ego lifts, then the dew of delusion will vanish.

20) I am ego-less. Still (stupidly) I am grieving. O knower of Brahman, tell me that which is usefull and appropriate.

21) O sage of great determination, dignity and experience, I have got liberated with effort and good qualities from the calamities of ego residing in me. I am free from sorrow.Instruct me on what remains to be done.

Sarga XVI

The Wickedness of Mind

Sri Rama:

1) By good deeds, and by serving good people, vices and blemishes in one will wear out and decay.Mind wavers like the frills of a peacock feathers by the wind.

2) This perplexed mind wanders about without aim and purpose, wastefully, like a dog on the streets of a village.

3) Nothing is gaines or acquired by this mind. Even if a great treasure or trove of money is obtained, its stomach is not filled, like a basket which can never be filled with water.

4) Like a deer which is lost from its herd, mind entangled in the web of endless ambition can never attain happiness.

5) Gripped by the fickle and wandering activity and cut to the core, the mind does not leave the (worrying) thoughts and never stays stablein the heart.

6) Confused and agitated with thoughts, the mind runs around in all directions.Its like the milk-ocean convulsed and churned by the"Mandhara" mountain.

7) I am unable to restrain and control this huge ocean of mind which is agitated by the vortices and crocodiles of deception.

8) This antelope of mind is running after the tender grass of pleasures without any concerns for the deep chasm ahead.

9) Confused, bitten and shattered by the sense of I-ness, my mind is unable to to shed the confusion and agitation by the eddies of thoughts like the waviness of the ocean.

10) The mind is wavering with thoughts. It is more so, by the mass of thoughts and eddy-like activity. It cannot be bound to a place like a lion in a cage (which constantly wanders).

11) Mounted on the chariot of bewilderment (and delusion), the mind ceases the happiness of equanimity - which eleminates the agitation ofthe mind - from the body, like a swan which steals milk from water.

12) The mental states totally melted into the bed of huge fabrications and imaginations can never be, o sage, awakened (to light).I am very

much agitated about it.

13)O Brahman, I am bound by my mind, which is keeping me under the leash of desire - gathering all the knots in the body together - like a hunter holding his net.

14) By the constant smoke of anger and the flames of sorrow, anxiety and sad thoughts, I am burnt by my mind, like a straw by fire.

15) O sage, running after the wife of desire, pitilessly becoming stupid, I am mentally eaten away like a corpse by a dog.

16) O Bhagavan, I am dragged down by my mind like the trees on the banks (of a river) by the lashing waves and eddies.

17) My mind wanders and whirls around with unwanted extrenious things and thoughts and throws me into the vacuum (of the sky) like a straw by fierce winds.

18) I am waging a war to get out of this sea of "Samsara". I am restrained by my wily mind like water-flow by a barrier.

19) My evil mind is binding me to an attitued of dancing between earth and netherworld and vice-versa like a large bucket moving up and down a well.

20) Though it is an illusion, I am taken in by my mind, like a child by a "Vetala" with its vastness and dusky pinkish thoughts.

21) This devil of a mind is extremely difficult to overcome. It is hotter than heat. It is harder to cross than a mountain. It is tougherthan a diamond.

22) Like a bird which swoops onto meat, mind swoops onto worldly activities.It suddenly ceases its interest in it, like a child in play(after playing for sometime).

23) Dear sir, this mind-sea tracks me along far with its serpents and vast eddies and agitations.

24) To subdue and humble this mind is more difficult that swallowing the waters of a sea, than uprooting "Meru" and even taking in fire.

25) This mind is the (root) cause of all worldly desires and purposes. The three worlds are existing because of that.When it declines or vanishes, the world declines and vanishes. And so, one has to attemptto pure this mind (of its diseases).

26) O muni, verily, all grief and happiness arises out of the mind like the forests which spring from the mountain slopes. I think by discerning intelligence, all these will thin down and vanish.

27) I shall conquer the enemy that is binding me. I shall awaken my mind. I shall not welcome the riches that entice me the way a moon does not welcome a dark (cloud).

Sarga XVII

The discomfiture of Desire

Sri Rama:

1) Desire is boundless in this dark night (of Self) in the creative, senstient consciousness , blemishes and faults flash around like owls(in the night).

2) I am dragged to dryness and decline by the distressing grief which is causing internal heat and making me cliant with stupidity. It islike the earth drying up due to sun's heat.

3-4) The demon of ambition, desire, and longing is dancing in the forest of my mind, which is blinded by infatuation.Verily, the buds of grams, called cares and enxieties, bloom in the bright gardebs if goldby word-made dew drops.

5) A vicious ecstasy arises due to internal illusions, moved by desires, like wavesrising in a sea.

6) The river of desire is flowing over my mountain of a body, making uncontrollable sounds of agitation.

7) In spite of my desire to restrain the speed, the "Chataka" called

mind is being dragged by vicious desire to some unknown destinationslike a blade of straw being blown off by wind.

8) Like a rat which bites away the strings of a "Veena", my desires are destroying the good qualities in me.

9) I am whirling around in the circle of anxieties and cares, like a dry leaf in water, like a straw in winds and like a cloud in autumn sky.

10) Unable to rest in my intellect, and Self, I am struggling in the net of agonies like birds in a net.

11-12) Dear sir, I am burning in the flames of desire. I do not know wether the heat will subside even by nectar. This mad, wild horse of desire speeds out to far off places and returns back, thus whirlingaround the distant horizons.

13)The stupid and ignorant desire oscillates and moves up and down like a waterbucket-rope constantly. It (desire) is full with confusing knots.

14) With indestructible knots, and lumps and inside one's body, people are carrying the load of desire like a rope-bound buffalo.

15) Desire weaves a net around people, like a hunter around birds, in the shape of sons, wife, and such.

16) Desire is like a dark night in autumn. I am afraid of it even though I am a courageous person. I am like a blind man who can see.Though happy, I feel unhappy (in the presence of desire).

17) Desire is like a black cobra. It is vicious. With her soft touch, she showers poison even if one touches it (mildly).

18) Desire is like a black demon. It breaks one's heart.Full of deceit, it dishes out only misery and misfortune.

19) Desire cannot delight a decayed and wearied body. It is like a sluggish "Veena" (which cannot entertain).

20) The creeper of intense desire (Trisna) is like one which is long,

wiry, oozing oily, unctuous substances making the whole thing impure(to touch). It causes madness.

21) Trisna causes sorrow. It is empty and useless. It does not yield any fruit. It is inauspicious.It is cruel.It is like a faded bouquet of flowers.

22) Trisna is like a shrivelled and dried up lady of desire.It cannot attract any one's mind.Yet, it runs after everything without any result.

23) The great "Veena" of "samsara" is a confused confluence of many "Rasas". This trisna is an old dancer on this world-theatre of pleasure.

24) The poisonous creeper of trisna in this jungle of "samsara" is full of flowers called old age, fruits of calamities, and wild strokes.

25) This trisna is like a sapless weary dancer. She dances without any zest and goes about dancing to all places even where she cannot please.

26) This wavered peacock of trisna tries to dance at inaccessible places. She dances at the advent of fog and dew and ceases on thearrival of sun.

27) This Trisna is like a river during rainy season. It surges for a moment and for a long time, remains empty.

28) Trisna takes refuge in persons like a wandering bird which moves from one lifeless tree to another.

29) Trisna is like a fickle monkey which tries to jump across impossible lengths, eats fruits though not hungry, and is unable tostay at one place.

30) The actions of trisna look like the actions of destiny (acts of god), always moving from one foolish, absurd action to another absurd action.

31) Trisna is like a bee.One moment it is on top in the sky and the next moment it is down in the nether regions. At another moment, itmoves around the quarters.

32) Of all the problems of "samsara", trisna is the one which gives lasting grief. Situated even in a palace, it runs into difficulties and afflictions.

33) Trisna offers the highest disease. Like an array of clouds which prevent the view of sun, casting deep fog around, trisna prevents the vision of the Absolute.

34) Like the rope-bound animals, the minds of people engaged in worldly actions are bound by the rope of trisna.

35) Trisna is a multicoloured rainbow, long and empty, seen in an empty place (sky).

36) Trisna is like the rainless, catastrophic autumn for the crop of "Nirguna", the state of qualitylessness.It is dew for the knowledge-lotus. It is long night for ignorance.

37) This trisna is an actress in the drama of "samsara". It is a bird flying in the theatre of action.It is like an antelope in the forest of the mind. It is "veena" for the music of memory.

38) Trisna is a large wave in the sea of worldly activity.It is a chain binding the elephant of delusion.It is the largest branch of the banyan tree of creation. It is moonlight for the lotuses of grief.

39) It is the pearl casket of old age, death and such sorrows. It is always intoxicated with the mental and physical diseases.

40) Trisna is like the sky which is clear for a moment , dark for a while, and covered deeply by fog at another moment.

41) When the body is exercised to peace trisna subsides, the way darkness leaves when a cloudy night passes off.

42) Trisna beats the mind into a state of dumb agitation, the way vicious fever throws one into a state of swoon.

43) When thoughts are abandoned, all grief of people will end.Giving up thinking, is the mantra/cure for the vicious fever of trisna.

44) Trisna is like a fish in a tank which bites the grass and lawn thinking that they are meat, again and again, in search of food.

45) Desire for a woman and affliction of sickness draws out even a

normally dignified person like sunshine which stretches a lotus.

46) Trisna is like the bamboo tree with knotter bamboos full of thorns and undergrowth. It loves the gems (left by the serpents moving in the tree).

47) Oh, what a wonder! Wise men are cutting asunder this unbreakable, tough trisna with the sharp sword of discriminating intelligence, "viveka".

48) O Brahman, this trisna in the heart is sharper than the edge of a sword. It is fiery than hot balls of steam. It is harder than diamond.

49) Trisna is like the fiery cone of a flame burning bright, but scorching for touch.

50) Even the best of men, who is wise, valorous, and majestic like "Meru" is made into a piece of straw by trisna in an instant.

51) This trisna is like the vast fields of "Vindhya", darkened by thick fog, and masses of dust and covered by inaccessible thick forests.

52) The purport and meaning of everything in this world is one and only one. However, each one acquires a different meaning and target, depending on the body it wears (in which it is situated).Trisna abidesin this wavering and fickle world in the same way like the differing sweetnesses (though sweetness is one) in water and milk. (Trisnamanifests in several ways in several people)

Sarga XVIII

(Rama's) abhorence for the body

Sri Rama:

1) Ugly with moist and sleezy entrails inside, this body is of a decaying nature. It appears in the world merely for sorrow.

2-3) Surrounding itself with skillful machinations and self-deceptions, this body appears wise, even though ignorant. It actually manipulates bad to look good.It is neither conscient nor inconscient. Being

unintelligent and stupid, it is a greedy abode vascillating betweenconscient and inconscient natures and feelings. As such, it leads one to delusion alone.

4)With little things, it feels happy, and with little things, it slips into sorrow.Come to think of it, there is nothing more worthless and sinful than a body.

5) Always, it is vulnerable to dangers. But every instant, it is decorated by flowers of smiles and filaments of dentures.

6-8) The body is like a tree with hands as branches, shoulders as the trunk and eyes as the swarming bees. Feet and forearams are its tender leaves. This is diseased and beaten by the axe of actions. It is abode of birds. It provides refuge to the travellers called "Jivas" in its shade. Who are its own people? Who are its own enemies? Who loves it?

9) This body is taken again and again to cross the ocean of "Samsara" and reach Brahman.Whoever will develop a feeling of ownership in this ship of body? 10) Who will have confidence and faith in this body which is like a forest, which is agitated in inumerable ways, with trees strewn around like uncountable hairs and yet like a void?

11) I am stationed like a cat in this silenced drum of a body of flesh and bones.

12) Well established in the forest of "Samsara" the mind-monkey plays around in this forest. The flower stalk of concerns is eaten by the woodworm of lasting griefs.

13) This body is the house of the snake of trisna. It is the abode of the crow of anger. On this grow flowers of smiles, fruits of good and bad occurences.

14) It looks beautiful with boquets of hands and creepers of well grown shoulders. The limbs are the innumerable breeze-shaken tender shoots and leaves.

15) This (body-tree) is the support for all the eagles of sense organs. It is majestic and tall with the trunk of thighs and knees. It shelters the flowers in transit under its shade.

16) Covered by the reeds of hairs on the head, it is the nest of ego-vultures. The stomach is a hole in that.

17) With "Vasanas" as its roots, this body-tree is a rare figure with no useful occupation. This body does not give me any happiness.

18) This body is the residence of the householder, called ego. I am no use for this. It does not matter to me wether it slips or stays.

19) In this house of body, the sense organs are bound in a row. The house wife called trisna is moving about in this house. All limbs are coloured by desires. This body is not to my liking.

20-22) This body-house is built of bones and ropes of entrails. This is not to my liking. This body-house is spread and diffused with arteries and nerves. It is muddy with water and blood. It is white-washed with the lime of old age. This is not to my liking. This house of a body is supported by pillars of illusions and delusions. It is existing because of the many doings of the servant, called mind. This is not to my liking.

23-26) This house is filled with the greiving cries of the child of sorrow. It is enchanting with the couches of happiness. It is peopledwith mobs of maids called evil desires. This house is not to my liking. It is afflicted by loads of vessels filled with excrete and sensuous,spicy things. It is corroded by ignorance. This is not to my liking. The head and ankles are joined by a long wooden log of knees and hands. This house is not to my liking. The lady called intellect (Buddhi) issporting through the windows, called eyes. Sorrow is the daughter of this body. This house is not to my liking.

27-30) With hair as the cover, the ears are the moonlighting stair of this house. This is not to my liking. The limbs are its walls. Thehairs are the sprouts of "Yava".The stomach is a hole in it. This house is not to my liking. The nails are the spiderwebs. Hunger is like an agitating hound. The vital airs passing through it make loud sounds.This house is not to my liking. The vital airs blow in and out constantlywith spread out windows called eyes. This house is not to my liking.

31-34) This house is ghastly with the gate of mouth occupied by the monkey of tongue. This house is not to my liking. This house is smeared with an unctuous, glossy smear called skin. It is unstable with the movements of machines inside. The rat of mind is constantly digging upholes in it. This house is not to my liking. For a while, this house is lighted by lamps of smiles. For a while it is full of darkness. Thishouse is not to my liking. It is a harbinger of diseases. It is like an aged city with folded skin. It is like a forest full of all diseases. This house is not to my liking.

35-39) This body-forest is sapless. It shelters huge, wild bears called senses. Its quarters and very dark.This forest is not to my liking. O lord of munis, I am not able to carry this body. I feel like a weak person who is trying pull an elephant out of mud. Of what avail iswealth? What is the use of kingdom? Of what avail is this body and desires? Time will distort everything in a short while. Tell me o sage, what isthe beauty of this body, which is full of blood and flesh in and out, and whose nature is destruction? This body does not follow the Jiva at the time of death. Which intelligent person can believe such an ungrateful thing?

40-44) This body is fickle like the ear of an elephant. It is as fragile as a drawn out water bubble. Before it leaves me, I shall leavethat. This tender leaf called body is pale and shakes with the vital airs. It decays with manipulations. I do not like this sapless thing. It grows soft and smooth, eating and drinking for a long time. Yet it streaks on to decay and destruction, without any effort. This body experiences sorrows and happinesses again and again. Yet, it does not shy away from them, like an ignorant person. This body enjoys and rules for a long time. Yet, it neither gets exalted not attains stability. Why should we tend and nourish it?

46) This body becomes old as age advances. It dries as death approaches. In these it does not make any distinction between a poor,rich or scholarly person.

46) Without any desire for liberation, this tortoise of a body sleeps in the hole of trisna in the womb of the sea of "Samsara".

47) There are plenty of logs floating on the sea of "Samsara".Among them, only a few are bodies of humans.

48) What is the use of this creeper of a body for intelligent people when this body which is ambulating in circles of bad actions and bears fruits of decay.

49) This frog of a body jumps into the mire of sensuous things and is suddenly overcome by old age. One does not know what happens when.

50) All the efforts and works of the body are just zestless. This is driven by unstable vital airs. No one can understand or visualise its passage on the road of activity.

51) One can understand the movements of wind, of a lamp, or of even mind but not of this body.

52) Contempt unto those who are infatuated and maddened again and again with bondage to the body and to the world!

53) O muni, I am not of this body. I am not this body. This body is not mine. One who is thus composed in his mind is the best of men.

54) Many are the honours and dishonours that the body has. It is enchanting with many gains - looking at the body in this faultedmanner, a person is destroying himself and binding himself in the body.

55) We are deceived by the many artful machinations by the demon of ego resting in the cave of body.

56) A person is deceived by the demon of ignorance which drives him into the difficult belief that this body is permanent.

57) Not even an iota of truth is there in this body. Surprising, that people are deceived by the body which will be consumed by fire.

58) In a few days, this body falls of like a dry leaf without any effort. It drops off like a cataract effortlessly.

59) This body soon gets into danger like a bubble in a sea. (Such a one) whirls around in activity wastefully.

60) This body is a tranformation of illusionary knowledge. It is like a dream-city. It stays for an instant. O brahmin, this is not for me.

61) May he believe in this body, who believes that lightning and a city in the clouds are stable.

62) This body is highly faulty and defective. It wins by persistence in constantly ephemeral activity system.I am sitting pretty considering this body as a mere trifle.

Sarga XIX

(Rama's) Censure of childhood

Sri Rama:

1) Birth in this sea of "Samsara" is unsteady, tremulous and burdensome with loads of acitivities. In that, childhood is merely sorrow.

2) Incapacity, calamities, desires, dumbness, foolishness, covetousness, fickleness and wretchedness - childhood is spent with allthese charecteristics.

3) Pique, resentment, wailing and weeping misery, fatigue, weariness - All these bind childhood like an elephant bound to a peg.

4) The kind of worries that stalk childhood are not seen in youth, old age and even in times of disease and death.

5) Wavering and fickle, the actions of children are like those of birds and animals. Their disliked and treated with contempt by everyone. childhood is worse than death.

6) The mind of a child is vitiated and disorganised with many meaningless and ignorant desires, determinations, and imagination.Where is happinesss (under those conditions) ?

7) Again and again, a child is afraid of calamities due to water, fire and winds. Such fear is not felt even by one who is ridden with calamities.

8) A child is drawn strongly into delusion in games, in wild

expectations, and in desires.

9) Childhood is full of erroneous and inconsistent actions. Controlled by elders, it is not at all peacefull and happy.

10) All kinds of faults, bad habits, inproprieties, and mental confusions crowd into childhood the way owls inhabit a deep chasm.

11) O Mahatma, people say that childhood is beautiful. Woe and contempt unto such foolish and mindless people!

12) When actions exhibit a wavering mind, how can there be pleasure in the happiest of the three worlds?

13-14) O muni, the mind of people will be ten times fickle in childhood than in any state (of existence) of anyone.Mind is by nature fickle. Childhood is more fickle. Who can prevent this bad conjunction.

15) O mahatma, the eyes of women, the lightnings, the flowing flames, the waves - all have learnt their ficklness and whimsical charecterfrom the childlike mind.

16) Childhood and mind seem to be like brothers at all times and in all activities. They are always fragile and brittle, prone to breaking in a moment.

17) All mental afflictions, sorrows, and faults of people seem to feed on/ survive on childhood, the way people feel on (like parasites) a wealthy person.

18) If a child does not get newer and newer things all the time, he gets into a vicious mental mood of epilepsy.

19) With little things, a child is happy and with little things, he gets into unhappiness. Like a dog, he sports in filth.

20) A child is always with a weeping face.It is like a muddy lake.He is like a rain-drenched hot place.

21) Fear, extreme indulgence with food, dejection, desire for seeing and unseeing things, wavering mind - all these are charecteristics of childhood. There is only sorrow in that state.

22) Weak and dependant, a child is depressed if he does not get what he

wants, as if his heart is broken.

23) The grief that lands on a child due to wild desires and excessive crookedness (in the effort to achieve), will not happen to anyone.

24) A child burns inside by pursuing his mental desires like a forest during summer.

25) A child sent to a school suffers vicious and fearful distresses like an elephant bound to a peg.

26) Childhood is only for a lasting grief with many desires, meaningless imaginations, sapless inclinations and ideas.

27) "I shall devour the world.I shall bring the moon to the earth" - with such foolish desires, how can childhood be happy?

28-29 ) O eminent one, what is the difference between a tree and a child? Both cannot prevent cold and heat though they want it to be? Achild is like a bird. Both want to fly out with open (wings) hands when fear or hunger grip them.

30) Childhood is the house of fear. At that time, a child is afraid of a teacher, parents and everyone.

31) O great muni, in childhood, mind is polluted and convulsed by many faults and defects. It is a harbinger of indescretion and unintelligence.Such childhood cannot give pleasure to anyone in thisworld.

Sarga XX

(Rama's) Contempt for youthSri Rama:

1) Moving out of calamitous childhood and boyhood, one enters youth, smitten by desires and expectations. One fails even here, due to confusions and convulsions.

2) He goes through innumerable experiences caused by fickle and wandering mind. The fool transits from one misfortune to another.

3-5) Due to the many agitations in his mind, he will be disgraced by the demon of lust in terms of thoughts and worries and fickle nature,his mind is more overpowered than that of women.Just like the way children are taken up by the power of illusions, the mind of a youth is always taken up (by such fickle thoughts).O muni, such bad ideas set a young person on immoral paths and lead to his downfall.

6-10) Because of its hellish foundations, youth is constantly bewildering.One who is not spoilt by it will never be spoilt by anyother thing. Youth is full of many passions, emotions, strange situations and events. It is fearful. One who crosses this can be called a wise and courageous man.Youth is momentarily flashy. It is like a loud lightning(with a momentary light and effulgence).It is not auspicious. I do not like it. Youth is like the intoxicationg sweet-bitter wine which is reprehensible. I do not relish it.It is unreal, but looks dear. Soonone can realise its treacherous charecter. It is like copulating with a woman-in-dream. I do not relish youth.

11-13) Of all the fascinating and charming things in a person, youth is the most transient. It is like the city of "Gandharvas" - a city in the sky. I do not relish youth. It gives pleasure only for the instant, equal to the time of travel of an arrow released from the bow to the target. Youth is full of unhappiness. It is full of burning desires and defects (of charecter).It is not to my liking. It is transiently enchanting. It is devoid of any good intentions or ideas. It is as goodas copulating with a prostitute. It is not to my liking.

14-17) All grief-giving actions and initiatives, without exeption , arise at the time of youth, like great catastophies that arise at thetime of dissolution. Youth makes the heart blind. Even god, in the shape of "Bhairava" is afraid in the night of youth. All good traditions are conveniently forgotten during youth. Youth blunts intellect and discrimination. The confusions and perplexities of youth cause intenseattraction to flesh (of body). An young is burnt by the fire of separation from his woman, like a tree by forest fire.

18-20) Mind gets polluted in youth, though normally broad and pure like

a river during rainy season. It is possible to cross a river in spate but it is not possible to live through youth made turbulent with desires. People become old even in their youth with thoughts like "Oh,that lady - her round, fleshy breasts - that coquetry, that elegance, oh! "

21-23) Saints and virtuous people do not care for desire-bent fickle minded youth.They treat them as a peice of straw. Youth afflicted by passion is the destroyer (of people). Youth is like a wild elephantwearing pearls of blemishes and weaknesses. It is the anchor that ties a person down. Oh! Youth is like a forest with withering trees, called sorrows. Mind is the vast source of these sorrows. This forest holds many serpents called weaknesses and defects.

24-26) Know that youth is a blue lotus with bees called bad thoughts. Its petals are improper fancies. Attachments and affections are its filaments. Youth is the nest of crooked-winged birds called mental and physical diseases, flying on the shores of the heart-lake. This teenageis an ocean of improprieties and undersirable waves of charms, enticements and stupidities.

27) This whiff of youthful air, with its established qualities of "Rajas" and "Tamas", is capable of sweeping away all good qualities.

28) Rising high in millions, the particles of youthful dust smear the face whitish pale, with sweepings of convulsions and agitations.

29) The charms and ecstasies of youth increase the blemishes in people and cut away the good qualities.

30) The moon of teenage ensnares the wandering bee of mind into the pollen of the lotus of body and binds it.

31-33) The creeper of youth as it sprouts of the bower of body entices the bee of mind. Running after the mirage of youth, rising out of the heat of the desert of the body, the deer of the mind slips into the chasm of sensuous things.Youth is the moonlight of night of body.It isthe main of the lion of the mind. It is a wave of the ocean of life. It does not make me comortable.

34) In this jungle of body, the spring of youth is fruitful for a short while. It is not trustworthy.

35) This eagle of youth flies away in a trice from the body like "Chintamani" which slips out of the hands of an unfortunate person.

36) As youth ascends to its highest peaks, passions leap and gallop and that is only for destruction of a person.

37) The night of youth does not end as long as attachments, attractions, jealousies, and hatreds do not die.

38) The way one commisserates with a dying son, one should take pity on youth which is beset with all passions and disorders . It is transient and lost in itself.

39-40) Infatuation brings elation. However, one who is ecstatically elated by youth reminds one of a human beast. Youth is intoxicatingwith frenzy of passion. One who is drawn to it will repent soon.

41) O virtuous one, those who happily overcome the afflictions of youth, they are worship-worthy. They are real great people. They aregreat souls.

42-43) One can cross a great ocean infested with fierce crocodiles. However, one cannot easily cross this turbulent youth afflicted by weaknesses and vices. In this world, it is difficult to find the kindof youth which is humble, compassionate and peaceful.It is as imaginary as a flower in the sky.

Sarga XXI

(Rama's) dislike for women

Sri Rama:

1-4) What beauty is there in the fleshy doll of a woman moving like a skeletal cage, filled with bones, muscles and nerves? Seperate theeyes, skin, flesh, blood and the tears.Look at them (individually) if they

are beautiful. Why get excited otherwise in vain?Here blood; here hair- this is all the body of a handsome lady. What will a man of deep mind do with such undesirable things? The limbs of women are kept smooth and fair with dresses and unguents.These are plundered (by dogs and jackals).

5-7) The breasts of a lady are laced with rows of pearl necklaces which remind one of the cascades of "Ganga"-waters, flowing down the slopes of "Meru-peaks. Such breasts become food for the dogs in the burial grounds after death. Why such attraction towards the limbs of a woman , which are similar to those of a camel in a forest?

8-9) O muni, we attribute beauty to women, which is merely transient, but is the cause of infatuation. In my opinion, (really) it does not exist.Women cause abundant lustful joy. But what is so great about that which is like the inabriation caused by consumption of liquor?

10-12) O muni, the men-elephants are tied to the anchor of women. Lying in ecstasy, they are not awakened even by a strong goad of calmness. With beautifully dressed hair, and collyreum-dress decorated eyes,women are very attractive to the eye. However, they are like fierce flames, which burn men like pieces of straw. Women are the fuel for the hellish fire which burns even from a distance. They are sapless, (tasteless) though charming.

13-14) With hair flying about, with star-like glittering eyes, and flower-like smile, the moon-faced women infatuate men into dalliance, destroy their activity and confuse their mind. Women are like longnights.

15-16) Sweet and delightful like flowers, women kill men like a poisonous creeper, throwing them into a state of swoon with their handslike tender leaves, eyes like delightful bees, and boquet-like roundbreasts, and with a complexion, white like the filaments of flowers.

17-18) Women entice and subdue men like a bear which breathes out snakes from their holes. The men-birds made artless and simple-mindedby the "kirata" called Manmadha are held by women in the net of their limbs.

19) O knower of Brahman, the wild elephant of mind is held by the chain

of lustful passion to the mighty anchor, called a woman.

20) Men are fish in the pond of births. They move in the mire of mind. Bad "vasanas" are the strings of the fishing rod. Women are the bait.

21) A lovely woman is a bondage for a man Like a stable for horses, "mantra" for the serpents and an anchor-pillar for elephants.

22-24) This pleasure land of world is a many-splendoured one. It is existing on the support of women. A woman is a casket of pearls ofvices. A woman is a chain holding sorrows. I am not interested in woman. What will I do with these flesh-filled breasts, hips, eyes, and eyebrows?

25) O knower of Brahman, within days, a woman diffuses and dismembers into blood, bones and flesh.

26-30) O muni, these delicate and darling women lie in drowse in the cremation grounds, completely dismembered. The leafy decorations made fondly by the lovers, on the faces of darling women , are lying dry inthe forests. Their (women's) hairs fly around like leafy fans on the trees in the symmetry. The bones shine like stars fall into the ground. The bood sinks into the dust.The eagles feast on the flesh. The jackalsfeed on the skin. The "pranas" blow up into the sky. This is the fate of the limbs of a woman in time. Knowing this, why should I be in an illusion about it?

31) What is called a woman, is formed out of the five elements. How can any person with intelligence fall for her?

32-33) If one pursues a woman in the mind, it is like thinking of a "sutala" creeper with sour fruits. A mind agitated by passion is like a musk deer which has gone astray from its group.

34) One who is beset with thoughts of a lady will land himself in sorrow like an elephant in heat while running after a female elephant.It will land itself in a chasm in the "Vindhyas".

35) Where there is a woman, there is a desire for the pleasure of union. When there is no woman, where is the possibility for lustfuldesire? Giving up on women is to give up the world. When the world is given up,

one becomes a happy person.

36) O knower of Brahman, afraid of old age and death, I shall not indulge in transient pleasures which are unstable like the wings of abee. I shall become calm and peaceful and attain the Supreme state with effort.

Sarga XXII

(Rama's) censure of old age

Sri Rama:

1) Childhood itself is weak and unsatisfactory. Youth devours it forcibly. Later, old age does the same thing to youth. How mercilessand harsh are they to each other!

2) Just like a tree on the banks of a river, like a lotus by the lightning of snow, and like autumn cloud by wind, old age destroys body.

3) Harsh old age wears out all limbs and deforms the body into ugly forms like a drop of poison.

4-7) Passionate, lascivious women look unemotionally at old, decayed skeleton like people with loosened and long limbs as if they are baby camels. When people are seized effortlessly and meaninglessly by oldage, their intelligence flees away from them like a lady from her fellow-wife. Friends, children, women , relatives and servants jeer ata person trembling with old age, as if they are seeing a mad fellow. Greedseizes an old man who is mean and miserable and ugly to look at, like an eagle occupying a tree (without its consent).

8) Desire for a woman companion increases in old age. This is beset with dangers. It burns the heart and is afflicted by misery.

9-11) "What can I do, I have to suffer fierce affliction without any

relief and redemption in the other world" - such fear grips people inold age. Old people sit silent and taciturn in a mood of misery thinking :Who am I ? What can I do? I can only sit quiet and silent.How and when and what kind of tasty food will I get from people? - such thoughtsburn away an old person all the time.

12) Desire and grief arise delightfully in an old man but there is no energy to enjoy. In old age, powerlessness constantly burns the heart.

13-15) The decrepit crane of old age stands on the crown-branch of the body-tree, infested with the snakes of disease.Soon, the owl of death strikes it, (flying around in its affection for the darkness of night). When dusk is seen, darkness runs after it. Similarly, when an old body is seen, death runs after it.

16) O muni, when the monkey of death notices the flower of old age on the tree of body, the monkey runs after it (the flower).

17) A deserted city may look nice. A tree without creepers may still look beautiful. A country in drought may be appealing. But a decrepitold body will never be elegant.

18) The way an eagle swallows flesh, old age consumes a person, causing serious cough.

19) The way a young girl puts a lotus in her hair with great eagerness and throws it off in a minute, old age also shakes the body off.

20) The way the leaves of a tree shake due to the dusty winds hissing through them, the body is shaken by old age.

21) A body struck by old age shrivels like a lotus wetter by dew.

22) Shining on the head (of a person), the moonlight of old age blooms out the lotuses of cough and airy diseases.

23) Looking at the "cucurbita" fruit-like head, smeared with ash of old age, king Time eats the ripe fruit with joy.

24) The "Ganga" of old age with waters called life span, rushing down the course, roots out the body-tree on the shore.

25) Having swallowed the rat of youth, the cat of old age waits with arrogance to gulp the flesh of body.

26) There is no such inauspicious sound in the world as the sound made by the jackal of old age residing in the jungle of the body.

27) The fire and flame of old age burns away an old man. The sounds of this fire is cough and the smoke is the consequent sorrow of blackness.

28-30) In old age, limbs become crooked like a creeper which is bent with the load of white flowers. O muni, the elephant of death roots out the camphor tree of body smitten by camphor-white old age.O muni, old age is the princely whisk fanning king Death who is heralded by an army of mental and physical diseases.

31-37) O muni, look at the way even the formidable, invincible troops camping inside a mountain cave, are conquered by old age. Enclosed by mist and ice of old age, the babies called limbs inside, will befrozen. They cannot move. But the dancer of old age dances with varying swings and amplitudes in the third harmonic of "danda". The accompaniments are cough, and heavy breathing. In the dressing room of this world, fans called old age, hang from the rod of body located at the top of theroom. In the city of body, the lotus of death blooms as soon moon of old age rises up. In the palace of body, white washed by lime of old age, women, called calamity, misery and incapacity, reside.Men are conqueredby old age and death.How can a fool like me have faith in them?

38) O muni, why should one think of living even when the invincible old age arrives? None in the world can conquer old age. This old age rejects all desires (due to incapacity).

Sarga XXIII

The Calamity of Time

Sri Rama:

1-2) People with mean mind and little intelligence rattle and babble about their meaningless fancies and imaginations. Thus causing

unrestrained division, and differentiation (of the Supreme), they getdragged into the cave of "samsara". How can virtuous and men of knowledge enter into such a cave? Only children crave for fruits reflected in a mirror.

3-4) Time itself tears away those who look for happiness in this world alone, like a rat which nibbles at the threads. There is nothing in this world which is not a prey for Time. Time is a devourer ofeverything. It is like the ocean fire devouring a rising ocean.

5-7) By his very nature, Lord Time, is fierce. He preserves in swallowing everything of this phenomenal world. This god does notprotect even the greatest even for a moment. By swallowing all things in the world, he attains the Supreme Selfhood. Manifesting as years, yugas, and kalpas and insignificant forms, Time ceases bit by bit, everything inthe world.

8-12) By this time, all things beautiful, big like "Meru" , and great initiatives are attacked and swallowed like snakes by "Garuda".There is no one who is not devoured by Time. The merciless, the cruel, the harsh, the lowly , the deceitful - name anyone - all are devoured byTime. Lord Time can swallow things simultaneously. This great devourer is not satisfied even with the swallowing of the infinite universes. Time siezes, destroys, creates and swallows. He performs the dance of"Samsara" wearing myriad forms, Time is nibbling at the seeds of beings in the worlds, like a parrot which nibbles at the seeds of a pomegranate.

13-16) The elephant of Time thunders and shakes blue lotuses of people. The tender leaf-like people are shaken by the tusks called auspicious and inauspicious deeds. This universe conceived and created by Brahma, is a huge fruit bearing tree. The forest of Brahman is spread over extensively by a repetition and satiation of such trees. Lord Time has designed years and kalpas, filled with flowers of days and bees ofnight. He is never sorry for his designs. He never breaks down even when torn. He is never burnt even though burnt. He is seen through when he has vanished. He is a king od deceit.

17-22) As in the kingdom of mind, Time also destroys and restores a

thing in a minute through elegant, ineligant, difficult and cruelactions, Time whirls people around. Selfishly, time appropriates everything from straw , dust, mountain and full seas to itself. Time is full of cruelty, avarice, and all such unfortunate charectersitics andproperties which are intolerable and fickle. Time plays ball with sun and moon inthe sky like children in the backyard of their house. Lord Time destroys all beings at the time of dissolution, wears their bones and sports around.

23-27) The great turbulence that emerges out of Time at the instant of dissolution, blows and sweeps off even "Meru" into the sky like dry leaves which are blown out by air. This Lord Time becomes, at times, "Rudra", "Mahendra", "Pitamaha" and "Indra". Other times, he does nothave any form. Time relentlessly creates and destroys, with great resplendance, from great trees called "mahakalpas", Time drops ripefruits called "Devas" and "Asuras". From the "Udumbara" tree called Time, the fruits of universes are dropping. Beings are the mosquitoes on this tree of Time.

28-31) The one, the Supreme, plays with the body together with his dearest friend, the Action, the way the consciousness-moonlight bringsto bloom, the lotus of existence. The configuration of Time, is infinite and shoreless in extent. It stands tall like a huge mountain. Bynature, Time is at times, the darkest of the dark. At times, it is effulgent and at times it is empty and void. Time moves along constrained and restrained paths with its huge earth-like weight, with its own power,and as the essence of the inumerable universes submerged in it.

32-36) Time neither grieves for, nor welcomes anything that comes or goes. It neither sets nor rises even when hundreds of "kalpas" elapse. Time fosters itself by itself, without any ego, playing the sport of creation. Time is like a lake with red lotuses of days with bees ofclouds hovering about. The miser of Time collects with the broom of night the golden dust off the mountains. Time, the miserly one, peeps and combs every corner of this world-house with the hand-lamp of sunlight.

37-41) Time devours the decaying forests of worlds, opening its eye of sun. Time keeps in the casket of death, the pearls of men in the house of the dilapidated world.Time wears these pearls as necklaces, and in no time, pulls them out and scatters around. Time wears a garland of lotuses called night which is followed by swans called day. Stars arethe filaments of these lotuses. Time is the butcher of the ram of the world with horns of mountains, oceans, earth and peaks. It drinks the blood of the ram, drop by drop, seeing through the eyes called stars.

42-45) Time is like moon for lotuses. It is a lion for the elephant of life. It is the most contemptible and meanest of thieves. Indulging in the sport of dissolution, Time crushes and casts people down. It enjoys within itself, its sense of void and emptiness. Time is the actor, enjoyer, destroyer and the memoriser of this universe. Time manifestsand hides in many ways and forms of the auspicious and inauspicious kind. This tyrant sports and delights in its mind.

Sarga XXIV

The dalliance of Time

Sri Rama:

1-4) (Hear about) the amorous passtimes of prince Time and the way he draws people into trouble. He plays (hurts) with the hoards of animals of people in the declining jungles of world and makes them miserable.At one place in the jungle is the beautiful lotus of the ocean-fire. At another is the great ocean of dissolution. At another, is the beautiful lake for water (sports). At the time of dissolution, he makes all the elements of different relishes and the several oceans (milk, etc) stale (by his actions).

5-10) In this world, "Chandi" roams around accompanied by "Matru" tribes. This earth, full of beautiful flowers like lotuses and"kalharas", is the wine-glass of Time. The terrible, fierce Lord Narasimha of thundering and ugly clamour and shout has become a parrot on Time'smuscular shoulders. Even the effulgent "Bhairava" of musical voice has become a

sporting bird for Time. From the bow of Time, always, the twang of nothingness emerges. From that bow fly out arrows called sorrows.Prince Time is hunting down with his arrows, fickle minded beings and monkeys wandering in the forest of this world.

Sarga XXV

The Dalliance of Lord of Death

Sri Rama:

1-5) There is one who is excellent and the best in vile sports and enjoyments. He createsand controls this world. He is called God of Time. The form of his violent self-vibrationis action. He does not desire any form other than action. Just as snow melts away due toheat, all humanity and physical elements become weak and distressed by him. All thisvisible world is his ball room. Here he dances continuously and relentlessly. The thirdone (of the Time forms)* is Yama, the god whose roar is violent, frightful and cruel. Hewears the shape and body of a “kapalika” and dances in the world like one intoxicated.

*(First is the Time of Action, second is the destroyer Time)

6-9) O muni, this Yama, who dances to soulful tunes, as if eternally, is extremely fond ofhis wife called “Niyati”. The three flowed “Ganga”, the moon-white “Sesha” are thesacred threads on his chest of “Samsara”. (For Yama) the orbs and halves of moon andsun are bracelets on the hands. He holds the delightful lotus with the egg of universe asfilament , in his hand. His garment is star shaped sky, bordered with tornadoes, called“Puskaras”. This garment is washed white in the vast ocean (at the time) of dissolution.

10-14) In the presence of such Yama (of Time), his consert Niyati dances relentlessly,causing a spate of creations and beginnings. He visits his dancing wife in the hall of theworld, cleverly, in the form of a non-circular vibration, with a beginning and end. Allgod-countries are her (Niyati’s) beautiful jewels. The vast region from the sky to thenether world is her long hair. Hell is her foot-jewel. These are tied around with stringscalled bad actions. Nether worlds are her feet. On the face of this lady is the beauty spotof musk. This spot is painted by “Chitragupta” and created by maids called actions.

15-18) At the time of dissolution, this Devi dances to the signs and directions of LordKala (Yama). Then, fierce and violent sounds of breaking mountains emerge out of hersteps. While dancing, a garland of dead peacocks of “Kumara” will be whirling androlling on her breast. From the three huge eye-openings, violent and fierce sounds will beemerging. Her face is covered by long locks of hair. Her braided hair with hibiscusflowers swings like huge fans. The mighty dancing “Bhairava’s” stomach is her gourd.The body of “Indra” with its thousand openings is her begging bowl.

19-25) Emaciated bodies , like staffs, with craniums at their heads, are filling the sky.This all-destroying “Devi” seems to be afraid of herself (in that form). With thatuniversal form, the “Devi” looks effulgent, dancing at the time of dissolution. “Tumbura”and such (musicians) flee (from their dwellings) hearing such thundering and violentsounds emerging from the dense “Puskara” tornadoes and violently swinging “damarus”.For Yama in the dancing hall which is bright with the moon-disc, the star-spangledmoonlighted sky is the crest jewel of peacock feathers. On one of his ears, shines the earring of “Himalaya” bones and on the other, the ear ring of “Meru” of golden hue. Sun andmoon are the jewels on cheeks. The “lokaloka” mountain rang is his girdle. The manyhued cloud-complex is his upper garment. This is flapping due to the breeze crossingover.

26-32) The earlier worlds which have fallen prey to Yama, have emerged as several kindsof weapons for him. These weapons strung together by the great serpent “Sesha” to holdor leash the “Samsaras” (worlds), are shining like a garland around his neck. His shoulderdecorations are the pearl-bearing seven seas, filled with crocodiles called “Jivas”. Actionssuch as rites and rituals are the great whirls and tornadoes. The resulting sorrows and joysof the “rajas” and “Tamas” kind are his hairs. Such Lord Time takes rest at the end of“Kalpa”, suspending his dances, once again, he indulges in creation and starts his dance,embellished by sorrows and joys. Like a child making mud dolls, Yama the Lord of Timecreates relentlessly, worlds, beings and many other things along with their traditions andactivities.

Sarga XXVI

The Despicable Passtime of Gods

Sri Rama:

1) If this is the state and mode of Time and world, for the likes of us, o muni, what isour condition? Please tell me.

2-6) Charmed by these gods, who are the architechts of this world, we are living likeanimals sold to them. This Time , the follower of non-aryan tradition, and of devouringnature, he is relentlessl throwing beings into the sea of calamities and catastrophes, theway “Agni”, the god of fire burns worlds burns worlds with his hot flames, Time alsoburns the beings and worlds, raking up huge ambitions. His consert Niyati shatters thecourage and fortitude of even the embodiments of rule and tradition, (like munis) withher fickle ways, natural to the women kind. This Time throws beings into old age anddevours them like a snake eating air.

7-8) This cruel Yama does not spare even the most distressed. Is it not difficult to findpeople who are compassionate towards all? O muni, what are considered as riches and

powers by human beings, are sapless. All fields of pleasure are only fearful, violent andsorrowful.

9) Life is very fickle. Death is inviolably harsh. Youth is tremulous, shaky and unstable.Boyhood is taken up by stupidity.

10) World is corrupted by dreams. Relations and relationships are mere bondages toworldly life. Pleasures are the great afflictions and diseases of this world. Desires are likemirages.

11) Senses are foes. Truth is drifting into untruth. Self alone hurts Self. Mind is the foe ofmind.

12)“Buddhi”, the discriminating intelligence, gets corrupted weakened by ego. Allactions are yielding undesirable and bad fruits. All delight is focused towards dalliancewith women.

13) All dexterous deeds of good nature are being hurt by the sensual dispositions. All joyof consequence and essence is becoming sapless and tasteless because of sinful andunbecoming natures.

14) Being is appearing as non-being. Mind is given upto ego. Afflicted by a sense ofemptiness, the ultimate purpose is not reached.

15-18) O saint, all are burning inside with agitated minds. The disease of attachment is infull gleam. Dispassion and desirelessness are becoming unattainable. Struck by “Rajas” isthe sight. And so, “Tamas” is on the rise. One is not able to reach out to “Sattwa”. Andso, the knowledge of the Self is becoming distant. Existence is moving into instability.Death is on the arrival-mode. Courage is in shambles. Interest in non-things is increasing.Mind is soiled by sloth and sluggishness. Body is falling off (perfectly). Old age isburning away the body. Sin is striking (everywhere and everyone).

19.22) Youth cannot be gained by effort. Association with good people is becomingdistant. Truthfulness is not seen anywhere. There seems to be no way out. Mindis becoming deluded. Delight inside is getting distant. Compassion is not arisingeffulgently. Lowliness and mean behaviour is on the rise. Courage and fortitudeare shrinking into timidity. People are gripped by calamities and blows. It is easyto embrace bad people. Association with good people is difficult. Thoughts comeand go. All ideation and fancy is cause of bondage. People are constantly drawninto these moods.

23-27) Even quarters are disappearing. Countries are drifting away to new positions.Mountains are shattering to pieces. What to say of people like us? The world that isexisting now is devoured by sky. Even earth comes to distress (through destruction).What to talk of the likes of us? Ocean dry out. Stars fall off. Sages too pass away. Whatto talk of the likes of us? Titans and giants are torn apart. The pole star is not firm (in

position). The immortal gods are also dying. What to talk of the likes of us? Even “Indra”is being attacked. Yama is being restrained. Even air is loosing its airiness. What to talkof out ilk?

28.30) Moon is resolved into ether. Sun is breaking into pieces. Fire is getting quenched.What to talk of the likes of us? Even the most austere Brahma, the eternal Hari ,are vanishing (at the time of dissolution). Lord Shiva is reduced to nothingness(at the time of dissolution). What to talk of people like us? Even time is a dulydissolving (at the time of dissolution). Niyati, the law, is getting withdrawn. Skyis expanding and merging into the Infinite. What to talk of people like us?

31.34) The One, the Unknowable, the One beyond description, hearing and sight, causesthese worlds. Through his “deception”, through the sense of I-ness, he abides inall beings in the three worlds. He is not bound by anything or to anything. Theway in which water flows down the stony slopes, the sun is directed to wanderconstantly among mountains and plains along with his horses. The globe which isthe abode of good and evil spirits is enveloped by the disc of stars like an“Akroot” fruit, covered by its skin.

35-37) Gods in heaven, humans on earth, and “nagas” in nether world , created byBrahman, are drawn towards a state of decline and decay by Time. Cupid, the lord of lust,having gained a sense of valour battling against Lord Shiva improperly lays siege on theworld by leaps and bounds. The way a wild elephant exudes ichors from its temples,“Vasanta” the lord of spring showers flowers all over the quarters and space and makes aperson fickle and unstable.

38) Even great people of high intelligence and discrimination cannot resist and toleratethe side glances of their beloved ladies.

39) I consider those, who help others, and who react and resonate to the sorrows ofothers, blessed, as those cool and peaceful in their Self.

40) Who can count the number of waves in the sea of life which rise and fall and fall aprey to the ocean fire?

41) All beings are like deer, entangled in the creepers of vices in the jungle of births, andbound by the ropes of attachment and unrestrained ambitions.

42) People are wasting their lives of many births, with bad actions and activities.Even though intelligent and inquiring, they are not aware of the uselessness ofsuch rope-like creepers winding around trunks of trees in sky.

43) People are whirling away their time by such illusionary joys like : “today it is afestival; today it is a good season; this fellow is my friend; this is speciallypleasant, etc.”.

Sarga XXVII

On the Transience of Hostility Towards Beatitude and Salvation

Sri Rama:

1) This world appears extremely interesting and charming. But what comes of itdoes not lead to tranquility of mind.

2) With childhood passing off, the deer of mind reaches the declining stream of oldage, indulging in its mental fancies and imaginations.

3) The bee of life strays away from the lotus of the body. The moment it startsshriveling due to the dew of old age, then the lake of samsara becomes empty ofpeople.

4) An aged human body is like a withering creeper with fading flowers. As itbecomes riper and riper, passions decrease and the flowers fall off.

5) The river of “trisna” rushes along in this world, swallowing all the things androoting out and grinding away all the pleasant and good trees on the shores.

6) Contained within skin, this boat of body is tossed about on the sea of samsara.The crocodiles called five senses shake and swing the boat.

7-8) The wild beast of mind moves among the myriad branches of the tree of desires inthe forest of desires, and wastes away its time without any result or fruit. Great peoplewith strong mind and heat remain distant from attachment and sorrow. They are notenthused or delighted by easy life(of riches). They are not easily moved by women.

9) Those who cross the sea of war fields made turbulent by the elephants, are notreal warriors. Only those are real heroes who cross the ocean of body and sense,agitated by the waves of mind.

10) There is no non-afflicting action which gives peace to a person gripped byunrestrained ambition and desire.

11) Very rare are the great souls who remain calm and unbound after filling the worldwith their fame, conquering the quarters and filling by their might and courage,their homes with riches.

12) Whether one hides in a cave of mountain or deposits himself in an invinciblepalace built of hard diamonds, calamities and good things visit him as destined.

13-16) O muni, people imagine and expect that sons, wife, wealth are all sweet andpleasant things. They realize soon that these are only transient and temporary in theend. Even the most enchanting one is only a stupefying epileptic experience. At theend, when the body reaches its final moments, the old person burns inside, saying,that all his life was full of sorrow and cruel phases and he is reminded of the unethicaland unrighteous ways of his behaviour. How can people attain peace of mind, whichflutters like a peacock feather, when all their life was led in desires and acquisition ofwealth? Even the good fruits of good actions and providential like the tides in a river.People are deceived by these fruits. Different people like different things!

17-20) To please one’s wife, near and dear, people spend their entire time from youthto old age in pursuing riches and pleasing things. This way, they wear away theirmind till the end of their lives. The way ripe leaves fall off a tree, fools are born to dievery soon. When a person wanders around during the day without performingintelligent and proper actions and enters the house as night approaches, how can heget good sleep? A person has conquered all his enemies. Whatever riches he desiredhave come. He has served joys all the while. From somewhere soon, arrives death.

21.23) Undesirable passions and feeling arise from somewhere and disappear in atrice. Churning in these thoughts and mental states and dispositions, peopledo not notice the onrushing calamity of death. The workings of Time makeseven delightful people, who are struck and bound by past actions, like rams inthe sacrifice. They become joyful again only by effort, and not by afflictionsof the body. Who knows from where the people of this world are coming andto where they are going in haste. All this is transient like waves in the sea.

24) Women are like creepers hanging from a poisonous tree. They attract people withtheir quivering eyes, like bees with blood-red wings. They take the lives of menwho are attracted to them with their beauty.

25) The relations and mutualities between relatives, friends and wife are like meetingpeople on tour. They are all in vain.

26-27) The great experience of peace is like a golden ornament. I do not understandthe logic or philosophy of those ignorant people who are bound by these affectionsand loves and the fickle and unsteady world. Even though this conglomeration ofagitations of the world are transient like water bubbles (in the rainy season) thewandering, distracted intelligence of the people believes it to be eternal and stable.

28) The radiant beauty of a lotus is destroyed in a natural way by autumn. Similarly,the qualities and stations (in life) are taken away by old age, but the comfort ofconsolation has gone far away. It is difficult to feel happy and consoled.

29) Even a tree which helps people with fruits, shade and flowers again and again bygod’s grace, falls a prey to the axe. Where then is the question of any consolation foranyone?

30) Mixing with people may be delightful. Yet, it is inherently faulty and detrimentallike a poisonous tree. People are only asking for stupefying trouble.

31) Even Brahma and such gods also are of transient life of “kalpa”-instants throughthe dexterous art of the matrix of time, the sense of short and long (times) is created.These in fact, are unreal.

32) Where are the people who are without blemishless sight? Where are quarters notburnt by sorrows? Where are people who are not transient? Where are actions whichare not deceitful?

33) The mountains are full of stones. The earth is full of soil. All trees are full ofwood. Humans are full of flesh. Egoistic and distorted actions are not at all unusual.

34) When looked at from the point of view of physical and seperative consciousness,the world appears to be existent; otherwise not.

35) Even in dreams, mind artfully beguiles the intelligent people of this world. Then omuni, what is surprising if they consider this world beautiful.

36-38) Neither at the beginning nor at any time of journey (through life), noble andgenerous behaviour does arise in people who are beaten by avarice and greed. Suchbehaviour seems to be like a fruit of a creeper in the sky. Men are drifting down intothe dumps of their deep desire to ascend to high status and riches due to their ownfaults and mental degradations. It is like an animal falling off a cliff in attempting toeat the fruits of a tree on the edge. The shade, fruits, and leaves of a tree located in aninaccessible location like a chasm, are useless. Similar are the riches of modern (non-believing) people.

39) Some people move about and behave in a soft, beautiful and pleasing manner.Some behave in a harsh manner. It is like the animal “krishnasara” wanderingsometimes in a harsh environment and sometimes in a beautiful garden.

40) Every new day, the creator is fierce. It looks charming, but soon slips intodarkness. As the actions reach fruition, they are struck by some unknown hand. Whowill not be surprised at such a deadly mind?

41) People driven by desire are indulging in all kinds of distasteful and undesirableactions. It is not easy to find, even in dreams, good people in this world. Allactions are full of sorrow and are distressful. I do not know how one can livethrough this life.

Sarga XXVIII

On the Incessant perversity of All Aspects of Life

Sri Rama:

1-4) O knower of Brahman, this visible and manifest world of mobiles and immobiles is totally unstable and transient like a dream.O muni,what is now seen as a deep dried up sea, can tomorrow, change into a tall cloud-covered mountain. What is today a great forest touching the sky heights, can get razed to the ground or become a huge well in a fewdays. A body which today is decorated with silks, unguents and garlands can tomorrow become naked and thrown off into a distant pit with broken limbs.

5-10) A city vibrant today with diverse activities may take the charecter of the forest in a few days. A king who is radiantly sittingon a throne today can become a heap of ashes in a few days. A fierce anddense forest with tall trees can, in course of time, become a great city with sky-high constructions. The same forest can later become a cemetry. In this world of wood, water and grass, water can become land and vice-versa. All of this is constantly changing.All is changing -existence to nonexistence. Childhood is changing to youth and youth to old age. All things are moving relentlessly from existence to non existence, like waves in water.

11-12) Life in this world is like a lamp in breeze. All occulence of physical things is like the effulgence of a lightning. All things inthis world are changing constantly like seeds.

13-14) The state of this world gives the impression of a dancer dancing in ecstasy in a tumultuous tune, whirling and stamping. She is bedecked by the dust, called beings, raised by the breeze of mind. The great calamities and perversions are her dance-gestures and gesticulationsand expressions of moods.

15-16) The graceful generous glances are the transient activities of the world. Her glances are fickle like lightning. They create anillusion of reality of the world. The design of this world resembles this dance.

17-20) Yesteryears, great men of yore, riches and works, and activities in bygone years - all have slipped into oblivion. We will also suffer the same fate in an instant. Everyday wanes and waxes. There is no end to this phenomenon of dying and rising in this changing world. O lord, animals and becoming humans and vice-versa. Gods are loosing their godliness. Where then, is steadiness in this world. Sun creates withhis sun beams day and night, again and again. With that, he awaits the endof time.

21-26) Even Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra, chase their own destruction, the way waters in a sea seek ocean-fire. The heavens, earth, sky and air, mountains, rivers and quarters - all are mere fuel for the marine fire of destruction. For a person afraid of death, wealth, friends, relatives, servants, prosperity, all are sapless and distasteful. Aslong as the feeling of loss and destruction do not enter the mind, people enjoy the above feelings (about riches, etc.). Wealth is here in one instant, and in another arrives poverty. At one instant one is in good health and in the next moment arrives disease. Is there an intelligent person who is not charmed by the illusion about this ever-transient world ?

27-31) At one instant the sky appears to be mud-smeared. At another, it appears golden hued. At another, it appears like a tree-hollow covered by blue lotus-like clouds. Once it roars and another instant, remains completely silent, like a dumb thing. Once it is star-studded. At another, it is bedecked with sun. Once it is delightful withmoon. Atonce, it is totally empty. Whoever is not afraid of such a world which is so transient? Now calamity; next moment great wealth; now birth; nextdeath - then o muni, what is not transient?

32-35) O Bhagavan, nothing is steady. In this world, a thing does not remain the same before and after birth. A cloth appears to be a pot and vice-versa. What is seen is not what it is. Change is the norm in the world. What declines, rises up again. What is destroyed is created again. Like day and night, this cycle repeats in the case of a humanbeing. A weak man is killing a strong person even though ordinary people of lowly charecter are rising up to become kings. All is constantlychanging in this world.

36-40) Being born, a thing changes continuously, like waves which arise due to the vibration of water. Even when a body remains the same, childhood remains for a while only. Youth arrives later, yielding placeto old age. (If such is the case with the same body) What to talk of other things! One moment there is joy; one moment there is sorrow. Next moment everything calms down. Mind plays the actor in everything. Here something, there something - the creator goes on playing like a child, without any fatigue. The creator creates and devours relentlessly, likeday and night, the cycle of beings goes on eternally.

41-43) The beings, participants in this world of change, are born and are dying. There is nothing steady or constant for them, even in the case of riches and calamities. Time plays with people throwing theminto catastrophes - may they be intelligent and manipulative. It makes them confused and unstable. The fruits, called beings, hanging from the tree of the three worlds fall as they ripen, shaken by the winds of time.

Sarga XXIX

On the Perishability of Everything

Sri Rama:

1) Thus, in this great mind of mine, burnt by the forest fires of faults and sins, no wish for pleasures is flashing. A mirage cannot beseen in a lake.

2-4) Day by day, the state of this world is becoming more and more disagreeable and distasteful, like the pungency of a creeper envelopinga neem tree. Day by day, wickedness is increasing; generosity andgoodness are decreasing. O king, the minds of people are becoming hard and harsh, like a thorny "Karanja". Traditions are slipping and this worldis breaking away like a dried "similika" creeper without any noise.

5-9) O lord of munis, kingdoms and pleasures are full of miseries. It

is therefore better to seek solitude. Gardens, women, wealth do notgive me joy or pleasure. I want peace of mind. O sir, pleasures are transient. Desires are unbearable. Mind is waversome. How can I bedelivered of these and attain peace? I do not rejoice or greet death. Nor do I rejoice life. I would like to stay as I am, without any fever oranguish. What is there for me in kingdoms, pleasures and desires. All are due to ego-sense. I am free from it.

10-14) The sequence of births is firmly bound with knots of senses. Whoever can get unknotted, liberates himself from this bondage. He is a great man. Cupid churns the mind with the attractions of women. It is like an elephant stamping on tender lotuses. If one does not cure the mind now, when will it be possible hereafter? Sensuality is poison.Poison kills only one body, but sensuality kills through all the births. Pleasures and pains, joys and sorrows, relatives and friends - none ofthese bind a Jnani.

15-18) O Jnani, who knows the pros and cons, cause and effect of things, I want to become a knower of Brahman. Please show me the way to deliver myself from fear and pain. This fierce, terrifying forest of ignorance is full of 'vasana'-nets and thorns of sorrows. There are toomany chasms and calamities. O muni, I can bear being sawed by a saw. But I cannot bear the sawing by sensuous things and desires."This is, this is not" - Such an illusory activity convulses the mind the way a heap of dust is whirled by wind.

19-23) The pearls, called beings are strung into a chain by the string of desires. The best pearl in that is pure mind. The pearl necklace of world adorns the rogue elephant of Time. I want to tear this necklace the way a lion tears the necklace of an elephant. O knower of Truth, please shatter the darkness in my foggy forest of heart with the lampof knowledge. O great soul, there is no mental disease, no desire, that cannot be dispelled by association with noble people. Is there amoonlight which cannot dispell darkness at night? Life is transient like a water drop in a cloud. Pleasures are like lightnings inside a cloud. Youthful dalliances are ever-changing like flowing cascades. This kind of thinking is firmly stamped and embedded in my ever peaceful mind.

Sarga 30

Rama's Prayer for a Teaching

Sri Rama:

1-3) Thus emerge thousands of perilous thoughts in the mire of mind and undesirable calamities in this world. When I think and ponder about these things in my mind, my mind becomes bewildered and my body quivers and trembles like a dry leaf on a decaying tree. The bewildered mind, unable to feel delight, courage or excitement, becomes empty and lostin this world, like a girl whose husband is of mean might.

4-6) Driven by ambiguity, uncertainity and ignorance, the thoughs slip towards lowly things, the way a deer slips into a pit deceived by the loose cover of leaves. Depraved and fallen people, who are epitomes of ignorance, get settled in difficulties and not in good conditions. Like a distressed person drawn into a dark well, their eyes are drawn towards gold coins. Such people will neither get what they want, nor dothey reach the place they desire. It is like the new bride called sorrow, who has come to live with the husband, the Jiva, in his house.

7) Courage, distressed and broken, lets go certain things like a creeper in autumn.

8-11) Divided and cheated in all the purposes of life, my mind has become unstable. Neither taken in, nor rejected by Self, I am abidinghere in this world. My mind is wavering in understanding the internal support (the Self). The tree that is deprived of its branches, etc,looks like something else other than the tree. The fickle and unsteadywavering mind wanders in all the three worlds in search of pleasures. It does not discard its anxieties like the "Devas" who do not leave their aeroplanes. O great saint, what is that state and stair which is noble,not wearisome, attributeless, and which is devoid of sorrow?

12-14) How could king Janaka and such noble people attain highest

states even though they are involved in activities and worldlyinitiatives? O venerable one, how can one remain unstained by the mire of samsara which touches every limb? What attitude do "Jivanmuktas" (thoseliberated while in life) adopt to rid of all impurities and move about in this world?

15-17) How can the avaricious, sensuous, transient serpent of sensuous things turn auspicious and good? How can this lake of "Buddhi" become perfectly clean after being churned to muddiness by the rogue elephant of attachment and delusion? How can the multitudes of people remain unbonded, like a water drop on a lotus leaf, even when actively engagedin the world?

18-22) Treating the world as a trifle, and looking at the world from the view of Self, how can people of the world attain the Supreme state, untouched by cupid? Which noble person, who has crossed the ocean of ignorance, should people follow to overcome sorrow? What is that auspicious and virtuous thing, that is proper to pursue? What is theappropriate conduct in this absurd world? O lord, please give me that knowledge by which I can understand the past, the present, and future states of this transient, unstable world? I shall follow that path unimpeded, which leads to Brahman, after cleansing the stain in the moon of the heart-sky.

23-27) What, in this world is acceptable? What is to be rejected? What else is there other than these two? How can I attain steadfast repose of the wavering mind? By what sacred mantra can this poisonous, most disturbing disease of the world be overcome? How can I achieve the coolness like that of the full moon and internal joy like that of aboquet of flowers? O saint, you are a knower of Truth. Please instruct me such that once I attain that perfect state, I do not grieve again. Omahatma, without that most excellent state of repose, all activity is meaningless. It is like the lowly life of a dog wandering in a forest.

Sarga 31

On the Queries of Rama

Sri Rama:

1-5) Life of the body is transient like a water bubble dangling from a leaf at the top of a tall tree. It is soft like the digit of moon in the crest of Lord Shiva. It is shaky and fickle like the throat skin ofa croaking frog in a meadow. Association with relatives and friends is equivalent to a hanging rope around one's neck. The cloud of delusion, wafted by winds of "vasanas" and bearing lightnings of greed andavarice, are thundering and shaking things. The peacocks of greed are dancing. Bowers of calamity are throwing out flowers hither and thither. A cruel cat called "Kritanta", the Yama, is in a hurry to devour the rats called Jivas. The beings are cascading on to here from somewhere.

6-7) What is the way for me? What is my fate? What do I grieve about? Where can I seek refuge? How can this forest of life become good and auspicious? There is not mean thing neither here nor in heavens, whichis not made beautiful by intelligent people.

8-12) How can this completely contaminated and agitated insipid world become pleasant except for ignorant and foolish people? World will become beautiful like a flower bedecked earth, by the bath of milk of contentment. When cleansed, and unclean thing will shine. How can mymind, polluted with desire, become radiant with ambrosian effulgence? By following whom, shall I move about in the forest paths of this world?In what way (by following which) the plenitudes of the serpents of attachment, jealousy and such poisons, do not afflict the people swimming in this sea of Samsara?

13-17) How can men of fortitude and learning remain unscathed (by the fire of samsara) like mercury that is resistant to fire? One who slips into sea cannot remain untouched by water. Similarly, one who is inthis world cannot be untouched by activity. There is no flame or fire which does not burn. Similarly, there is no good action which is free from joys and sorrows, attachments and jealousies. The three worlds are existing because of the ability of the mind to think. This capabilitywill not be destroyed without some skillful expedient. Please instruct methe best way. Please instruct me about that method by which one does not

incur sorrow wether acting or not acting in this world.

18-23) By doing what, and how, was the mind made pure and perfectly peaceful by earlier people? O Bhagawan, please tell me the way you are aware of how "sadhus" attained sorrowless state having got rid of delusion. O mahatma, even if such teachings are not given to me, evenif I do not obtain peace, I will give up everything having attainedegolessness. I shall not eat, bathe, nor be active. I shall dress myself. But I shall not perform any actions wether calamities overwhelm me or riches occur to me. I shall await, o muni, the moment of leaving the body.

24-26) I shall sit silent like a doll without attachment, doubt and jealousy. Then I shall stop breathing, leave aside sensient knowledgeand leave this useless and calamitous body. This body, nor that of others, is mine. I shall extinguish myself like a lamp without oil. I shall discard this body.

Sri Valmiki:

27) Thus said Rama of moonlight beauty, the one with the most awakened mind due to great inquiry and deliberation, became silent like a peacock which falls silent after crying at the great clouds.

Sarga 32

On The Praise by Celestial Beings

Sri Valmiki:

1-2) When the lotus-eyed prince Rama uttered such delusion-relieving words, those who gathered there became wide-eyed with wonder and amazement. Their hairs stood on end, separating their clothes from the closeness to their bodies.

3-4) All their worldly "vasanas" were displaced by the "vasanas" of dispassion and non-attachment. Locked onto Rama's figure, they heardhim with vastly gladdened hearts.

5-6) In that gathering were great munis like Vasista, Viswamitra, ministers like Jayanta and Dhristi, kings like Dasaratha, prominent

citizens, brahmins, feudatories, servants and many princes. All theseand even caged bird's were listening to Rama with attention and concentration.

7-11) Pet animals, horses were quiet without making any noise. Kausalya and other queens sat in their seats, like statues, without allowing their ornaments to make any disturbing sounds. Even birds in gardens refrained from flapping their wings. The Siddhas, the Devas moving thein the skies, Narada, Vyasa, Pulaha, and such famous sages, gods, vidyadharas, great serpent kings, listened to the most noble words ofRama carrying unusual interpretations, meanings and significances.

12-13) Then the Siddhas, Suras, and other sky-wanderers showered loads of flowers on Rama who sat silent after the great enunciatory exposition. The entire flower shower appeared like a colourful canopy.

14-22) The invisible Siddhas showered the flowers for nearly half an hour. Then the beesin the hibiscus flowers came out making pleasant sounds. Men enjoyed the delightful fragrance of the flowers. It lookedas though the starry sky was swept onto the earth. It was as if the lightof the smiles of celestial ladies was descending onto the ground. It was like sudes of gold dropping down. It was like hailstones of pearls thrown onto the earth. It was as if the moon-beings were spreadingcreamy white shine on the earth's surface. The bees were wandering all over.The fragrant breeze made the flowers quiver. The flower shower from the blue-lotus-hued sky covered the houses. The citizens watched all this glamorous show with great delight. They were amazed at this unusual occurence.

23-27) After the shower stopped, the Siddhas said thus among themselves. This was overheard by those in the assembly." We have beenwandering about in the world since the beginning of creation. We never heard such delightful words. What this great prince of Raghu dynasty spoke out of dejection, even Brihaspati may not be aware. Oh! What a wonder! We have heard the most delightful exposition from the mouth of Rama due to our great merit (Over the births). We are enlightened and awakened by the noble words of Sri Rama.

Sarga 33

The Gathering of Celestial and Earthly Beings

Siddhas:

1-3) We should hear what the maharshis say about the sacred words by Sri Rama. O great Narada, Vyasa, Pulaha, come without hesitation tothat great assembly of golden lustre like bees seeking lotuses.

Sri Valmiki:

4-12) Then the munis descended onto the assembly spot on the ground in their aeroplanes. First in the line was Narada with his great Veena. Then Vyasa of the blue-cloud colour. In the middle were maharshisBhrigu, Angirasa, Pulastya, Chyavana, Uddalaka, Usira, and Saraloma. In their hurry to enter the hall, they stuck against each other, causing the displacement of their dear skins, and oscillations of "Kamandalus".Because of the radiance, they looked like stars in the sky. Their faces were effulgent like sun in the firmament. It looked as though a second sun-region and moon-sphere have landed on the earth. The place nearVyasa appeared like a cloud in that starry region. The seat of Narada waslike a moon-region in the starry space. Pulastya was like Indra among the gods and Angirasa was like sun-god among gods.

13-14) As this procession of maharshis descended onto the assembly hall, the already gathered munis got up and greeted them respectgfully.The two groups, the residents of the sky, and the residents on the earth, mutually illumined their bodies. The effulgence illumined the entire space.

15-19) The munis of the sky held bamboo staffs and lotuses in their hands. Their bound hair was tied with sacred grass. Their matted hairs were brownish in colour. They wore "rudraksha" garlands in addition to flower garlands. They wrapped themselves with cloth made of bark. Pearl chains were enveloping their waists. Sages Vasista and Viswamitragreeted these great sages appropriately. In return, the Siddhas greeted sages

Vasista and Viswamitra.

20-27) King Dasaratha also greeted the visiting Siddhas with appropriate courtesies and sweet enquiries. All of them then took their appropriate seats. The Siddhas honoured Rama, who stood before them respectfully, with sweet words of praise and a shower of flowers. Rama,the brilliant prince, took his seat after being ordered by Vasista andViswamitra. There were in the assembly many leaders of munis like Vamadeva, Narada, Viswamitra, Vyasa, Marichi, Durvasa, Angirasa, Kratu, Pulaha, Saraloma, Vatsayana, Bharadwaja, Valmiki, Uddalaka, Richika, Saryati, Chavana, along with the ministers and vedic scholars.

28-32) Then Narada, Vasista and Viswamitra and others spoke thus to Rama. "Young Rama spoke noble, auspicious words of great significanceand detachment. These are worthy of deliberation. They are very pleasing, clearly articulated, enlightening and delightful. One in a thousand can speak such words of wisdom.

33-35) Dear Boy, In whom else can such a "Bana" creeper of great intelligence bear fruit. In whomsoever the lamp of knowledge shinesbright as in Rama, he alone is a man. Many are mere flesh-machines. They are stupids. They are attracted by gross material things. They are not conscious.

36-38) These animals never enquire into the truth of things, being completely bewitched by them. They are struck again and again by birth, death, old age, and such sorrows. Occasionally, one finds someone like Rama, who is of inquiring nature and who is guided by great ideals.Very rare are those, who realise the truth of things. They are as rare asthe fine, tasty fruit yielding mango trees.

39-46) Sri Rama has developed at such a young age, an integrated, intelligent outlook with his ability to look into the nature of things.One can see many trees grown tall and beautiful, full with flowers, foliage and fruits. But one cannot see sandalwood trees at many places. One cannot see "lavanga" creepers everywhere. We have heard a greatexposition from Rama. It was like the cool moonlight and boquets of flowers from a

great tree. O great maharshis, it is difficult to squeeze essence out of this meaningless samsara. Those who try to get the best out of this are blessed. They are men of great quality. In this world of phenomena, there is none like Rama, a noble self of great discrimination and intelligence. This is our considered opinion. If we cannot help Ramaachieve his goal, we, who call ourselves munis, are of no use, our intelligence is useless and wasted.

End of Book Of Dejection